Freakonomics

spruce112358

It's All A Joke

Debates

16 Mar 10

spruce112358

It's All A Joke

Joined: 23 Oct 04
Moves: 4402

16 Mar 10

How many of you have read this book? I picked it up in the airport the other day just by chance.

I was enthralled by the reasoning that Roe v. Wade was the prime mover for plunging crime rates in the US in the 1990s.

Other topics: "Why most drug dealers live with their moms, how teachers and sumo wrestlers cheat, what makes a 'perfect parent'?"

Very entertaining -- especially for the Debates Forum crowd.

Seitse

Doug Stanhope

That's Why I Drink

Joined: 01 Jan 06
Moves: 33672

16 Mar 10

It's an interesting read, indeed.

If you liked it, get Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist
and The Logic of Life. You'll enjoy them as well.

Palynka

Upward Spiral

Halfway

Joined: 02 Aug 04
Moves: 8702

16 Mar 10

1 edit

It's a great read. Levitt and Dubner sometimes conclude too much from superficial evidence but they do have a knack at making it hard to counter argue. I'm less of a fan of Hartford, although they're usually lumped together.

sh76

Civis Americanus Sum

New York

Joined: 26 Dec 07
Moves: 17585

16 Mar 10

1 edit

Originally posted by spruce112358
How many of you have read this book? I picked it up in the airport the other day just by chance.

I was enthralled by the reasoning that Roe v. Wade was the prime mover for plunging crime rates in the US in the 1990s.

Other topics: "Why most drug dealers live with their moms, how teachers and sumo wrestlers cheat, what makes a 'perfect parent'?"

Very entertaining -- especially for the Debates Forum crowd.

I read Super Freakonomics. I've referred to it a number of times on this board. The original is high on my list. I'll get to it one of these months.

Fascinating books. You figure much of what they say is too simplistic to be true; but interesting nonetheless. It makes you think about simple things differently.

In case you're interested, there's a free series of podcasts (so far only 2, but hopefully they'll make many more). You can search for it on itunes. Or, if you don't use an ipod, you can download the mp3s here:

http://podcasts.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/podcasts/freakonomicsradio.xml

The most recent one is quire relevant to the salt tax thread.

FMF

Joined: 28 Oct 05
Moves: 34587

16 Mar 10

Originally posted by spruce112358
How ...sumo wrestlers cheat....

I sifted through this case study with some Japanese Embassy friends and they were rather disconcerted by the mathematical proof that sumo wrestlers on 8-6 going into the last day of a 15 day (1 bout a day) basho tend to throw their final bout. They prefered having a gut feeling that the wrestlers cheat.

TheBloop

Joined: 27 Mar 05
Moves: 88

17 Mar 10

For anyone who's interested, the authors (as well as other contributors) have a blog on the NY Times web site, with articles on many subjects.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/

The archives go back several years. For example, from 2007:

"The Economics of Gold-Digging"

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/the-economics-of-gold-digging/

"The Economics of Sugar-Daddying"

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/the-economics-of-sugar-daddying/