To begin with, this
book is not for the plain dull witted
economics
student. Economics has long been regarded as a dry subject with not
much
life with it. Steven Levitt, the winner of the John Bates Clark
award for the best economist under 40 has attempted to change all that.
In this book, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side
of Everything; Steven D Levitt, along with co-author Stephen J Dubner,
makes the
reader ponder the economics in a much real world issue like
'If crack dealers make so much money, why do they still live with their
mothers?', rather than plain commentary on fluctuating interest rates.
Levitt has proposed a few
interesting theories in this book, but as he
has admitted, he is not much of a writer himself. So he turned to
Stephen J Dubner, who wrote about Levitt in The New York Times. Thus
was born Freakonomics.
Tying up topics so distant to economics, like the relation between
School Teachers and Sumo wrestkers, Levitt closes in on how incentives
are so important for the modern life. Cringing a
bit to statistics, and
a bit of rationalism, the duo has also reasoned out an explanation to
the falling crime rate in the US.
With impressive research, exciting and thought provoking questions
about seemingly obvious stuff, and mixing up diverse mixes to bring the
reader to the fundamental economics concept behind the fact, Steven
Levitt's Freakonomics is definitely an interesting and a must read.
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