The book” Freakonomics” is by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The title, “Freakonomics”, is a combination of two words: Freak (which means quirky, unusual, or weird) and economics, but in the sense of economic related to economic activity; the economics that consumer, families and businesses encounter every day. The title reflects the author’s name of the method of economic analysis in aspects of everyday life that normally fall outside the scope of the work of economists. The author’s success is due to the fact that this is a fun book to read, with a little dose of humor. No one can resist investigating the answer to questions like, "What do common schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? “ Or “Why drug dealers live with their mothers? “. But beyond anecdotes, the case studies presented in the book show some controversial findings, such as linking the decrease in violence in the United States to the legalization of abortion .The really interesting thing is that the book shows the true activities performed by economists that the general public usually does not know about.
Most people have assumptions about what an economist does. If a survey was made that asked people to show an example of what an economist does, answers would be varied. Some would say that an economist is a person that knows tax and accounting, others would say maybe a project manager, and some would even say that it is a person who analyzes the financial markets and is able to predict the exchange rate of a currency or market price of a market value. In the best case, it would be a professional who analyzes economic data such as GDP, inflation, and unemployment to predict how the economy will behave. Very few people would be to think of an econ...
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... “Freakonomics” show that the old principles of economic research are still valid: curious social behavior, ask the right questions, get accurate data, and demonstrable conclusions.
Although the authors have referred to the book as a different type of book, outside the main role of economics, it is really the opposite: it is a book that gets to the root and the origin of economic theory. Again, it raises questions about what happens in society, analyzing peoples motivations based on data and the economic rationality of individuals, and drawing conclusions which are often considered counterintuitive or different than established knowledge. In fact, Steven Levitt ‘s academic career has been marked by success, and he has been recognized by numerous awards. This shows that when economics is shown in a way understandable to the public, the result can be a big bestseller.
On the front cover of Freakonomics, the subheading reads, “A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,” which is the purpose of the book. The economist Steven Levitt and the author Stephen Dubner wrote this book using several rhetorical devices to achieve that purpose. A few of those devices, style, ethos, pathos, and logos, were prominent within the book and helped to convey the message and purpose well.
Their main focus is to engage and teach the ordinary person versatile concepts of economics in an inoffensive way. In doing so, they account for all manner of people who might be reading it, including drug dealers. That way, a drug dealer could read facts about their line of work and digest data concerning it, without feeling offended or attacked by the words the authors chose. Levitt and Dubner make their book an all inclusive reading because anyone can read it from any walk of life and not be offended in doing so.
Brue, S. L., Flynn, S. M., & McConnell, C. R. (2011).Economics principles, problems and policies. (19 ed.). New
There are a multitude of complex, intricate issues and problems that exist in modern day American society. In an effort to begin to fathom the complexity of such issues, society as a whole has created “conventional wisdoms” to explain the otherwise unexplainable phenomena. In addition, so-called “experts” on topics have tried to explain causes for such issues that may not even be causing them in the first place. Perhaps these causal hypotheses and conventional wisdoms are true, or perhaps there is more to the puzzle than meets the eye. In Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner use juxtaposition and selection of details to convince readers to dig deeper into the world and find the truth behind what seems like reality.
This paper aims to present the book review of ‘Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything’ along with the main arguments, course applications and personal opinions.
Chapter four of Freakonomics starts off by giving background information of the dictator in Romania. Nicolae Ceausescu was the dictator of Romania that made abortion illegal. With this new abortion law Ceausescu wanted to strengthen Romania’s population. Before the abortion law, there were four abortions to every live birth (Levitt and Dubner, 2009). However, women who already had four children and were apart of the communist party were exempt from this law. Within one year of this act the population had doubled. Studies had shown that people who were born after the abortion law would do worse in school, in work, and would sometimes be more likely to become
This chapter's main idea is that the study of economics is the study of incentives. We find a differentiation between economic incentives, social incentives and moral incentives. Incentives are described in a funny way as "means of urging people to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing", and in this chapter we find some examples public school teachers in Chicago, sumo wrestling in Japan, take care center in Israel and Paul Feldman's bagel business of how incentives drive people and most of the time the conventional wisdom turns to be "wrong" when incentives are in place.
Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus have all greatly influenced how people thought about modern economics, especially in areas relating to markets, in terms of the economy and whether certain things affected population rates. In this essay I will cover each of the three topic areas and how each economist interpreted these areas in order to explain why certain phenomena occur within British economics, most of which are still widely accepted today.
...age. Levitt explores this passage with the same approach that he uses to explore the hidden side of many other such examples in society that have been overlooked and accepted as conventional wisdom for far too long. Take the parents who feel confident that they have made the right decision to forbid their child to play at a friend?s house whose family owns a gun, but allows their child to play at a friend?s house that has a pool. Levitt shows that the child is about ten thousand times more likely to drown in the swimming pool than in a gun accident, but that the violent conventional mindset associated with guns wrongly portrays their potential of causing death. Through these examples, Levitt establishes Freakonomics as a way by which the reader should live their life, never totally accepting something until every stone has been upturned, eventually exposing its hidden
Chapters four and five of Freakonomics by Steven Levitt, discuss two interesting cases. In the beginning of chapter four, Steven Levitt starts off by arguing that the legalization of abortion played a big role in the sudden reduction in the crime rate in the United States approximately twenty years later. He then goes into the next chapter where he establishes a correlation between how a child is raised and later test scores. Furthermore, in his book he states many reasons for his argument and correlation.
Paul A. Samuelson, one of the men who made Harvard’s reputation, made various contributions to modern economics. Samuelson brought numerous theories to the table, showing that math is an effective and necessary component of understanding economics. Furthermore, he discovered a new obstacle regarding inflation, known as “cost-push” inflation. But most importantly, Paul A. Samuelson has shown that economic theories can be timeless, however their implementation evolves around the current economic circumstances that are in play.
Milberg, Wand Heilbroner, R.L (2009). The Making of Economic Society. 12th ed. US: Pearson International Edition . 54-62
Economics is the study of how best to allocate scarce resources throughout an entire market. Economics affect our lives on a daily basis, whether it is on a business level or a personal level.
The crucial importance and relevance of economics related disciplines to the modern world have led me to want to pursue the study of these social sciences at a higher level. My study of Economics has shown me the fundamental part it plays in our lives and I would like to approach it with an open mind - interested but not yet fully informed.
Sullivan, A., & Steven M., (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hal