Infernal Economics

Author: (USA) Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: In this book, Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner draw from everyday life to explore the world behind the ordinary through an economic lens: Will reading to babies make them better students later? Are swimming pools more dangerous than guns? The structure of drug trafficking groups is actually very similar to that of McDonald's, with no income for employees and low-level operatives, while all the money goes to the CEO and the big boss. Differences in parenting styles have little impact on children. Freakonomics establishes a view contrary to conventional wisdom: If ethics represent our ideal model of social operation, then economics is describing how society actually works. At the same time, the authors also present various data painstakingly collected—school test scores, secret evidence from famous Japanese sumo wrestlers, real estate brokers' transaction records, and even secret diaries from gangster informants. Through clever analysis of this data, the authors draw startling conclusions. They will teach you how to analyze the world you see through data; they will show you: This is how the real world really is.
Famed book critic Lane Keller compared Freakonomics to a detective novel, saying he was "holding his breath" while reading it, afraid that a breath could blow away the book's magic. In his view, every chapter of Freakonomics contains all the elements of a first-class detective novel. However, the ultimate goal that Levitt seeks to uncover is not "finding the murderer" but "unveiling the facade of the real world." Almost every word in Freakonomics challenges conventional wisdom, and many of his discoveries are considered groundbreaking. Some have even put him in danger of being killed.
In this book, Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner draw from everyday life to explore the world behind the ordinary through an economic lens: Will reading to babies make them better students later? Are swimming pools more dangerous than guns? The structure of drug trafficking groups is actually very similar to that of McDonald's, with no income for employees and low-level operatives, while all the money goes to the CEO and the big boss. Differences in parenting styles have little impact on children. Freakonomics establishes a view contrary to conventional wisdom: If ethics represent our ideal model of social operation, then economics is describing how society actually works. At the same time, the authors also present various data painstakingly collected—school test scores, secret evidence from famous Japanese sumo wrestlers, real estate brokers' transaction records, and even secret diaries from gangster informants. Through clever analysis of this data, the authors draw startling conclusions. They will teach you how to analyze the world you see through data; they will show you: This is how the real world really is.
Famed book critic Lane Keller compared Freakonomics to a detective novel, saying he was "holding his breath" while reading it, afraid that a breath could blow away the book's magic. In his view, every chapter of Freakonomics contains all the elements of a first-class detective novel. However, the ultimate goal that Levitt seeks to uncover is not "finding the murderer" but "unveiling the facade of the real world." Almost every word in Freakonomics challenges conventional wisdom, and many of his discoveries are considered groundbreaking. Some have even put him in danger of being killed.
No matter from which angle you look at it, this is a book that will open your eyes.