Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everythingBy: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Penguin Books
I had heard about this book when in b-school but couldn’t lay my hands on it. Now that I got it, I started with enthusiasm. The front cover carries Malcolm Gladwell’s comment on it: “Prepare to be dazzled”. And WSJ says, “If Indiana Jones were an economist, he’d be Steven Levitt”. After reading it, I found that the book lived up to the hype!
It is an amazing book which doesn’t feel like trading on economics. It is common sense, in the most uncommon form. The book is an eye opener and I am sure all of us would learn so much new from it no matter how much we knew from before. It teaches us how to see the hidden side of everything.
I would reproduce portions from the front cover flip:
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 mothers? Why do prostitutes earn more than architects?
One of today’s most original thinkers turns our view of the world upside down…
Life can be baffling and chaotic, and sometimes it’s hard to make sense of it all. The answer, explains groundbreaking thinker Steven Levitt, lies in economics. Not ordinary economics but Freakonomics. It is at the heart of everything we see and do and the subjects that bedevil us daily: from parenting to crime, sports to politics, health to education, fear to traffic jams.
In Freakonomics Levitt turns conventional economics on its head, stripping away the jargon and calculations of the experts to explore the riddles of everyday life and examine topics such as: how chips are more likely to kill you than a terrorist attack; why sportsmen cheat and how fraud can be spotted; why violent crime can be linked not to gun laws, policing or poverty, but to abortion; why a road is more efficient when everyone travels at 20mph; how the name you gave your child can give him an advantage in later life; and what really causes obesity epidemics. Ultimately, he shows us that economics is all about how people get what they want, and what makes them do it.
I would always remember this book for telling me, “If morality represents an ideal world, then economics represents the actual world.” And for proving to me how legalising abortion can help reduce crime rates…
A perfect treat for a reader like me. I highly recommend this book to all….
- Rahul
1 comment:
Nice knowing that you enjoyed and appreciated some unconventional views. This is possible only by someone who has learned to look at things differently from the way people are connditioned to look. Surely it would ne possible to selectively filter out things to support certain comventional thought patterns.
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