Essays on Freakonomics

Main points:

- This reading expresses the mode ...

Book Review – Freakonomics

In Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, the authors discuss a fascinating combination of popular culture and economic theories, making Keynesian economics palatable for the modern sensibility. Looking at various subjects through an economic lens, the authors of Freakanomics essentially state that incentives play a vital part in our interactions with each other, especially with regards to economics. This book is about more than how our economy works – it is about how the world works when viewed as a series of exchanges and incentives. This book is largely in line with my own thoughts, ...

Introduction

The job of a real-estate agent is usually to convince a home owner to sell for a figure that is less than he would prefer, while informing potential buyers that a property or house may be purchased for a price less than that listed with. Agents convey information via for-sale advertisements in which they use enticing words such as “well maintained.” This may be a code name for something entirely different. This is the same kind of tactic that was employed by the Ku Klux Klan, which used words such as “Mr. Ayak” to signify that someone was a member of their Klan. This means that “ ...

Correlation between the two readings

The two economics books “The New World of Economics” and “Freaknomics” encompasses a correlation in terms of examining the important principles in economics. The only difference that can be observed between the two books is the method of explaining the key concepts in economics. However, correlations are more prominent despite the difference in approach. Freakonomics explains about incentives where people respond to the idea of it whether in a form of moral, social or monetary incentive. For example, in the book, a person is likely to trade something of value in return for an equal value plus an incentive. People will pay ...

Every four years, during the World Cup, soccer becomes a hot topic in the United States. Everyone is either watching it, talking about why they hate it, or debating about why it is not as popular as American football. A recent Freakonomics podcast rolled out the usual statistics, comparing soccer to football. Five times more Americans watched the Superbowl than the finals of the 2014 World Cup (Rosalsky). However, ten times more people in the world watched the World Cup than the Superbowl, making it the most popular sport on Earth. There seems to be some economic reasons behind its ...

Critique on Blog

In the blog, ‘We Have an Obesity Problem in This Country’, written by Richard H. Adamson, explicitly described about obesity in America, that the number of the obese are increasing, and if this condition continues then the population of obese adults will drastically increase in the coming 20 years. The author has estimated that by the year 2030, approximately about 60% of the adult population in 13 American states can be a victim of obesity. Further, it is also expected that 39 states can have obesity rate of 50%, and all the 50 states can have the overall obesity rate ...

Levitt and Dubner use the argument that economics is a study of incentives hence the correlation between economics and non-traditional economics topics. Levitt who is a recipient of the John Bates Clark medal is considered among the crème of the economists in America while Dubner if a former writer and editor for the New York Times magazine. The two met when Dubner was doing a profile of Levitt for an article in the magazine. The arguments in their book appear to be interesting and well thought out and are often presented as provocative questions. Levitt shows that though convenient, conventional wisdom ...

The contemporary society is rife with differences among people on grounds of religion, politics, culture, gender among many others. Differences between two groups affiliating to one or more of these aspects create competing mentalities of “us versus them”. In light of these developments, the question begs, do these mentalities help maintain a fair society? The book Super Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner challenges the way we think. It explores the hidden side of almost everything by asking probing, controversial and seemingly ridiculous questions. Some of the questions raised include, “why are doctors so bad at washing their hands? ...

Through academic training, human interactions as well as work experience, people gain different sets of information that ultimately constitute their knowledge. However, even if this statement is universally true for all human beings, the extent to which the ways of gaining knowledge are used by each person is very relative. Following this premise, it is true to convey that information – and therefore knowledge – is asymmetrical, which further implies that the nature and the amount of knowledge possessed by every human being are different. In certain situations though, knowledge might carry an ethical responsibility, that is, the duty to prevent a ...

1. Briefly, how did Levitt arrive at the conclusion that sumo wrestlers were cheating?

A normal individual would probably be freaked out to know that there are commonalities between a teacher and a sumo wrestler. According to Levitt (2005), in one of the chapters of Freakonomics, there is one commonality between these two professions—cheating. Both teachers and sumo wrestlers have the tendency to cheat. The author was able to prove that sumo wrestlers who are about to fight will most likely cheat because of the higher incentives they will get if they cheat. 80 words

How is the Ku ...

Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point emphasizes three rules of epidemics, catalysts for change which provide significant shifts in economic and social culture. First there is the "Law of the Few," where most of the work is performed by fewer people: connectors, who provide a linking experience between people of the world, and connect people socially; salesmen, who persuade people to believe what they say, and so on. The stickiness factor is described as the permeability of a message - just how easily it can get stuck in people's heads. Finally there is the power of context, where the environment is ...