Devil Economics: Unveiling the Real World Hidden Beneath the Surface

Author: (USA) Steven Levitt, (USA) Stephen Dubner, translated by Liu Xiangya
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: In this book, Levitt and Stephen Dubner draw inspiration from everyday life, exploring 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 profit for the grassroots employees and low-level associates; all the money goes into the pockets of the CEO and the boss. The differences in parenting styles have little impact on children. Freakonomics establishes a view contrary to traditional wisdom: If ethics represents the ideal model of how society should operate in our minds, then economics is describing exactly how society actually works. At the same time, the authors also present various data painstakingly collected—school exam 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 astonishing conclusions. They will teach you how to analyze the world you see through data; they will tell you: the real world is actually like this. Renowned book critic Landsberg once compared Freakonomics to a detective novel, saying he was "holding his breath" while reading, afraid that a single breath might blow away the book's magic. In his view, every chapter of Freakonomics contains all the elements of a top-tier detective novel. However, the ultimate goal that Levitt seeks to uncover is not "finding the murderer" but "peeling away the facade of the real world." Almost every word in Freakonomics challenges traditional wisdom, and many of his discoveries are considered groundbreaking. Some even risked his life for them. From any perspective, this is a book that will open your eyes.