Book Review: Freakonomics

The book has been very successful over the last year, and after reading it, it is easy to see why. Steven D. Levitt is a well-known Economist who currently works (teaching and researching) at the University of Chicago (who gets a big "boo" for rejecting me from grad school...). Anyway, his book takes a chance to look at interesting questions about society from an analytical point of view. He focuses on incentives; why do people do things? What's in it for them?

The reason this book has been such a success is that it is incredibly interesting. A quick look at the chapter titles show that you are not looking at some kind of econ text book:
Chapter 1: What Do School Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?
Chapter 2: How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?
Chapter 3: Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?
Chapter 4: Where Have All the Criminals Gone?
Chapter 5: What Makes a Perfect Parent?
Chapter 6: Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?

Levitt finds large batches of data and explains the result carefully, mentioning constantly that correlation is not the same thing as causation (or, in other words, that just because X and Y happen together a lot, it does not mean that X caused Y, or that Y caused X). He uses Chicago city school test scores, an undercover drug dealer, and California birth certificates, among other things, as data.

I have only one bad thing to say about the book. Between chapters are excerpts from newspaper articles written about Dr. Levitt, and most of these make him sound like God's gift to the earth. I do think that Levitt is brilliant, and thoroughly enjoyed his book. But I got that opinion by reading the book, and I don't need you telling me that you are brilliant mixed in. Let your work do that.

Overall, this is one of those books that just makes you say "I have never thought of that like that before."



Check out excerpts at:
www.freakonomics.com/