Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Title: Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded Edition]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything [amazon]
Author: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Publisher: William Morrow; Rev&Expand, Roughcut edition (October 17, 2006)
Pages: 366
Book Number: 8

What’s this 52 Books in 52 Weeks thing about?

Ah, yes, Freakonomics: one of those books that I’ve honestly been avoiding for a while, simply because it was on the best seller list. Perhaps a bit narrow-minded of me, I know, but generally speaking, when it comes to books, I don’t like the same stuff as the mass population does. I did, however, decide to pick this up on a whim, when I saw it among the new books at the local library.

So.. how was it? It was excellent, actually! I enjoyed the whole thing, including the bonus materials that were added to the revised edition. (The bulk of the bonus material came from the Freakonomics blog, which I wholeheartedly recommend.) As I touched on in a previous post, there wasn’t really a “theme” to the book. To sum up the book in a phrase: really clever economist asks very interesting (and strange) questions, then uses number crunching to find the answers. Here’s a paragraph from the beginning of the book to display what I mean by “interesting (and strange) questions”:

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life - from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing - and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head.

One part of the book I thought was really enlightening was the chapter on why most drug dealers still live with their moms. Reason? Drug dealing gangs are generally set up like any other business, like McDonalds, for instance. While the top dogs make a killing, the vast majority of the people, whether it’s the folks flipping burgers or the guys on corners peddling crack cocaine, make very little. It was found that the average street-corner drug-dealer made less than minimum wage (not to mention the chances of them being killed while working was much higher than your average fast-food worker).

Reading the book opened my eyes to the fact that, while it’s fairly common for them to do so, not all economists interest themselves solely with stock markets and real estate. The tools of economy can be used for all sorts of things, like figuring out how real estate agents are similar to the Ku Klux Klan (seriously), or ratting out cheating school teachers.

I really did love this book. I’ll sum up my feelings on the book in four words: I want a sequel.