Domain Name Com's Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Domain Name Com's - : Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by: Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

See Larger Image

List Price: $29.95

Our Price: $19.77

You Save: $10.18 (34%)
Prices subject to change.

Used Price: $11.99
Collectible Price: $26.95
Third Party New Price: $13.49

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 330
EAN: 9780061234002
ISBN: 0061234001
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: October 02, 2006
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: October 17, 2006
Sales Rank: 152
Studio: William Morrow

Related Items:

Editorial Review:

Product Description:

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an econo-mist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head.

Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of . . . well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

Amazon.com Review:
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: they could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from inner-city Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Freakonomics Is Not Rigorous Enough
The basic premise of Freakonomics is that everything that happens leads to something else, or that one thing leads to another. It's a book about cause and effect from a social perspective. With this view, the author challenges our assumptions about the way things are or the way we actually perceive them to be. The book is written with a lighthearted tone, making its subjects and case studies seem more like fodder for a cocktail party than as questions for research. Such treatment makes Freakonomics ... Read More

Rating:

- Surprisingly interesting
I have a new appreciation for the hidden side of economics! It read so quickly. Who knew economics could be a fun read!

Rating:

- Open your eyes to a whole new world!
Levitt and Dubner really challenge conventional wisdom.It will open your eyes to how easily people just except things as fact without ever questioning the data behind them. Its a read that you really will not want to put down and definately a must read for anyone in the field of psychology, social work, or medicine.

Rating:

- Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
After reading this book I wasn't sure whether the author is a brilliant person, but a bad writer, or whether the author is knowingly dishonest and misleading.

The author is extremely bold and in a single sentence will discount or write off all competing theories to his ideas; he makes conclusions about topics that academics have likely spent thousands of pages and many years debating. And he does it all while providing very little data to support his views and even less data to address ... Read More

Rating:

- Lessons in lateral thinking
This book contains a bit more hype than some readers may be comfortable with, but it is worth reading for the lessons to be gained in lateral thinking, pulling together ideas and interconnections that are not immediately obvious.

I found the final chapter on name choice relatively weak, but the ones on abortion and crime, and the corporate structure of crack dealers, were food for thought. And I have seen for myself an example of a real estate agent trying to coerce a client into selling ... Read More

Browse for similar items by category:

Economics - Business & Investing - Subjects - Books - Econometrics
Popular Economics - Business & Investing - Subjects - Books - General
Popular Economics - Business & Investing - Subjects - Books - General AAS
Business & Investing - Subjects - Books - General
Business & Investing - Subjects - Books - General AAS

Domain Name Registration


	Register Domain Name
	Private Domain Registration
	Domain Name Auction
	Bulk Register Domains
	Transfer Domain Name
	Bulk Transfer Domains
	Manage Domain Names
	Email Accounts

Website Creator


	Website Creator Build Your Own Website
	Website Templates
	Mobile Website Templates

Website Hosting Plans


	Hosting Plans
	Dedicated Server
	Virtual Dedicated Server
	My Server - Account Login

Secure Server Certificates


	Introduction
	Technical Documents
	Purchase Secure Server SSL Certificate

Software


	MS Office Student
	QuickBooksPro 2008
	Digital Photo Editing How To Create a Foto Album
	HTML WebPage Editors
	Top Firewalls
	Networking Software
	Internet Security
	Local Area Networks
	Security & Firewalls
	Software Downloads
	Internet Utilities
	Children's Software
	Programming

Electronics


	MP3 Players
	Camera & Photo
	Office Electronics
	Computers & Ad-On's
	Handhelds & PDA
	GPS & Navigation
	Home Automations & Security
	Compare Prices on Electronics
	Ink & Toner Finder
	Monitors & Projectors
	Internet Webcams
	Blu Ray Disc Drive

Contact Information


	Office Locations
	Customer Feedback

Domain Names Electronics Software
Manage \| Register \| Email Login

Home \| Domain Name Registration \| Software \| Electronics \| Web Certificates \| About Us \| Contact Us \| Help