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Freakonomics

Written by: Steven D. Levitt,Stephen J. Dubner
Narrated by: Stephen J. Dubner
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Publisher's Summary

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 economist 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 the conventional wisdom on its head. Thus the new field of study contained in this audiobook: Freakonomics.

Levitt and co-author Stephen J. 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 working of a crack gang...the truth about real-estate agents...the secrets of the Klu Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking, and Freakonomics will redefine the way we view the modern world.

©2006 Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (P)2006 HarperAudio

What the critics say

"Refreshingly accessible and engrossing." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Freakonomics

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Only For Young People

I would only recommend this book to a teenager or young adult. The concepts might prove useful for them to be exposed to. Basically the concepts of this book are that, unless you want to be very naive and risk being taken advantage of, you should take the term "expert" with a grain of salt. There are no shortage of careers in which people self-aggrandize or try to hoard information to make themselves appear more competent than they are. The internet is making these folks somewhat obsolete, but they continue using greasy and weasely means of trying to maintain their power structure.

There's a whole chapter outlining the mechanics of how a gang operates. If you have lived an incredibly sheltered life, this might be eye opening to you. But for anyone who's been paying attention, these concepts will all seem trite and obvious. And not the kind of obvious that seems obvious after you're exposed to it - the type of obvious where if it wasn't obvious to you, you simply haven't been paying attention. Or you've been deluded, or you float through life with a childlike submissiveness and unquestioning nature towards those in positions of power or leadership.

The fact that this book is lauded as being intrepid or unusually introspective in some way is concerning. It speaks to a culture of dimwits. Don't be a dummy - pay attention. If you need this book to help you get that message, that's good I suppose. But you'd be better off learning that yourself. You want to learn how to be critical in a functional manner.

1 person found this helpful

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Interesting book, more N-words than I expected

The data presented in this book is very universal and interesting, however, it is already showing signs of aging poorly. Still worth reading though. Fair warning: if you are sensitive to the uncensored N-word there are at least 3-4 occurences in there.

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Thought Provoking

Loved this book - had me anticipating the car rides so i can listen to it

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A collection of curious facts

Data and numbers are up to interpretation. It’s true numbers don’t lie but can be interpreted differently. I didn’t like the way homosexuality was treated at the end when the author discussed about the economics of sex and aids. It leans to a conservatism that seems not supported by all interpretation of the data.
Overall is a good book with some interesting insights.

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Fascinating

Thoroughly interesting, well read, good conversational topics. The only weird thing is the occasional guitar interlude which makes it sound like ... like a Sheryl Crow song is starting.

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A different way of looking at things

I’ve been wanting to read/listen to this book for the better part of a decade and finally managed to get it done. I was not disappointed.

The content is interesting and offers one great thought experiments and solutions to complicated questions. I knew going in what some of the topics and conclusions were but still enjoyed listening to Levitt justify his findings.

Given that I’m a listener of Steven Levite’s podcast and used to the high production value he now offers, I found this recording lacking a certain spark. It’s not bad, just average.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It’s a great way to learn how to objectively look at a question and formulate an unbiased conclusion based solely in the evidence.

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Must read!

This book is revolutionary and a must read for all! Have your life transformed as you read this book!

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Great book

Insightful. A must read.
Will definitely recommend reading/listening to this one.
On to Super....

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Interesting but flawed

It's troubling that someone who professes to love delving deep and thinking different is able to derive pleasure from firing a bunch of teachers for cheating, without delving deeper into story behind the cheating.

An original thinker is all well and good, but everyone has bias, and any claim that one professes to be apolitical, yet implicitly embraces free market Capitalism should raise eyebrows.

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Life is so fascinating!

This book makes life seem so fascinating and makes you think twice about the most mundane things, especially what you hear on the news. There are so many things like sumo wrestling and people's names that I wouldn't have thought twice about, but this book dives into them with such interest that I was hooked from almost the first page. Thanks #Audible1

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  • Shackleton
  • 2008-07-03

Good, but be careful

As a PhD statistician, I love a good data-driven story. Increasing, people in politics, business, and academia are looking for decisions that are based on what the data say. Leavitt's research is engaging and accessible and I, for the most part, enjoyed this book.

HOWEVER, without exception, Leavitt presents his findings as gospel and continually fails to acknowledge the limitations of his methods and his data. He mentions his use of linear regression to obtain his results, but fails to mention the limitations of this method (e.g., results are probabilistic, results are based on model assumptions which may be entirely incorrect). His results obtained from this method sometimes also appear to tell too convenient of a story and seem to be cherry-picked. Moreover, all his results are based on single data sets and may not be as universal as he would like. Finally, he often takes one result (e.g., reading to your kids does not affect their standardized test scores) and makes huge, sweeping generalizations that lead you to believe that reading to your kids doesn't have any affect on any outcome of interest and that you're a bad (or naive) parent for even trying.

These are dangerous practices, though I can see why he does what he does - making all sort of caveats would water-down his findings and make his book less sensational. Nevertheless, he runs the risk of misleading his readers. Judging from the comments posted here so far from people who assume these conclusions are certain, I would say he's succeeded in this endeavor.

1,158 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Carl
  • 2011-01-17

Easy read

This is a compelling book, but it will offend many. Race is dealt with quite a bit, and is pretty hard on blacks. We get mostly conclusions, and little of the data and methodology. Some conclusions are based on assumptions.


For example, they say that adoption correlates to lower success. If the data proves that, fine. But when they conclude that this must be because "The type of person to give up a baby for adoption tends to have a lower IQ"... I think this is an ASSUMPTION that can't possibly be supported by data, given that most adoptions are closed. How do they know the IQ of the mothers?

The idea that crime fell off precipitously in the 90's because of abortion is compelling but I see some flaws. They ASSUME that the unwanted, aborted babies were the most likely babies to have become criminals. At the same time they fall heavily on the nature side in the nature vs nurture debate (I agree) and imply that intelligent, successful parents tend to produce the same sort of children. So, who is really having all the abortions? Unintelligent and uneducated women, or upwardly mobile women that don't want impediments to careers and education? If the majority are in the latter group, couldn't it be argued that those kids would have been LESS likely to be criminals? Where is the data on this? I'm sure it's out there but not mentioned in the book. Also, what about all the aborted children that were essentially replaced by the children of immigrants? There has been no precipitous drop in population in America, unlike, say Italy, despite abortion and contraception because of immigration, correct? So, they must be saying that there's not a drop in teenagers, but just a drop in BAD teenagers, and I don;t see how this has been proven.

They sometimes cite hypothetical and anecdotal cases which are purely imaginary.

Despite these shortcomings, it was a fun read with interesting ideas. I just wouldn't take some of their conclusions as gospel.

160 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Greg
  • 2008-01-06

Interesting yet lacks unity

Bottom line - I recommend this book. It is full of interesting threads comparing one part of life to another. The book tries to show how human behavior is governed less by morality than by economics. The reader/listener must be willing to accept that economics is more than the study of finances and as explained is understandable.

There are parts of this book that will disturb some listeners. The idea that crime reduction is primarily the result of Roe v. Wade is difficult for some to accept.

Other topics include parenting for childhood success in school, racial bias in baby names, real estate agents who sell out, teachers who cheat on tests, and the anatomy of drug dealing.

My biggest problem with the book is that it lacks a unifying theme. In fact, near the end the author admits to this and gives us little to tie it all together. It contains some very interesting concepts that I will listen to again. Perhaps then will I start to see their connections to each other.

One irony I cannot fault the author for is more Audible.com's fault. The author spends a good deal of time describing which parenting traits impact their child's academic performance and which do not. One argument he makes is that the amount of time a parent reads to their child does not affect that child's ability to do well in school. Whether or not you agree, the irony occurs at the end when Audible inserts an advertisement lauding the significance to a child's academic success as dependent on hearing others read books to them. I found this amusing.

78 people found this helpful

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  • Taylor
  • 2015-08-30

I appreciate the concept

Any additional comments?

Although I love this clever approach of comparing things that seem so unrelatable and finding the similarities that you wouldn't ordinarily see, the statistic based approach wasn't exactly a reliable leg to stand on in my eyes. It isn't that I doubt how thoroughly they researched these topics, it's that I don't think statistics alone can tell a whole story. I was intrigued by the ideas, and I did enjoy the subject matter.It was a decent read, but I wouldn't actively recommend it.

45 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Rick
  • 2009-02-01

Everyone should read this book

First and foremost: this book has absolutely nothing to do with the economy. Nada. Zip. Zilch. This book, does, however, have everything to do with stepping back and looking at things from a different perspective.

As the summary says, this book covers a range of topics: realtors, drug dealers, school teachers, crime, etc. But the point is not so much to teach you something new about those topics, but instead to get you to look at how those topics have been presented to you by others. Then, to shift your perspective and think about them in another way.

This book isn't an education into the "what" or "who" or "where" or "how" that you generally see, but into the "why" of things. It shows that rarely can you take an explanation at face value, but instead you need to keep digging. Stopping at what seems to make sense isn't good enough -- you need to pick at it until you get to the true heart of the matter.

I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone, and have been.

39 people found this helpful

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  • Frank
  • 2017-01-18

Boring

I've had so many friends tell me to read this book, so maybe my expectations were just too high. But my initial reaction after finishing it was boredom. The statistics are slightly interesting, but there is a lot of conjecture and subjective material that leads the reader on a little. Plus, there is no overarching theme to it. Just a collection of random case studies.

20 people found this helpful

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  • John
  • 2012-01-14

Interesting Connections

I had been meaning to read this book for a long time. It really makes some very fascinating connections and allows one to see the world in a different light.

One thing that bothered me is that the book rather uncritically suggests that my hometown of Atlanta was a hotbed of Klan activity. Although there was Klan activity in Atlanta and most of the South (and in other parts of the country), the book does not mention that Atlanta (birthplace of Dr. King) also boasts a long history of African-American entrepreneurship. Further, the City of Atlanta has had African-American mayors since the 1970s. At another point, the book suggests the crime rate here is very high. Yes, Atlanta has crime, but the City of Atlanta is a small part (about 500,000 people) of a 5.5 million metropolitan community. Crime stats focusing only on the City can be misleading.

These observations should not detract anyone from reading the book, but since the authors focus on discovering the truth about connections others do not make, I felt it important to make these points.

20 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Richard
  • 2010-03-09

Compelling out-of-the-box thinking

Good for expanding one's point of view, and questioning conventional wisdom. Causes one to look at the motives behind the things we take for granted may not be as simply judged as first believed. Definitely worth the investment. I plan to buy the sequel. Narration is smooth and easy on the ears. Voice as enough inflection and personality to keep from being droll, but not so much that it is distracting or annoying.

16 people found this helpful

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  • Amy Norman
  • 2017-09-06

Interesting, but easy to tune out.

I learned a lot about incentives and what drives some decision making (microeconomics) but sometimes the data wasn't presented clearly. There seemed to be a lot of thoughts and information that felt like tangents. Still interesting, but sometimes it felt like there was too much information, so the point wasn't made clear. The baby names chapter especially wasn't easy to follow. Maybe I just need to listen to it again to catch anything missed.

Also, I would've appreciated a warning about language before listening to it in the car with my young kids in back... If there was one, I must've missed it. Oops.

12 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Brad
  • 2009-02-13

So-so

This book comes highly recommended.
I thought it was too obvious.
Maybe coming from a Science background (myself), we are taught to question everything, so the results in this book are not ground-breaking to me. Yet, I think non-science people must be reading this and saying, "wow, I never thought of it that way before". Welcome to the true science world.

9 people found this helpful

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  • Ray
  • 2022-10-03

A must-read

A brilliant deconstruction of some dominant ideologies, using smart data analysis.

Makes you see things differently.