|
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
A review by Gerry Donaghy
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Finn E. Kydland of Norway
and Edward C. Prescott of the U.S. for, as the Nobel Committee put it: "their
contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy
and the driving forces behind business cycles." I don't know what that means
in layman's terms, since I was told that there would be no math involved in book
reviewing. But, the imprimatur of a Nobel Prize means that this must be important
stuff that affects all of us, so it would probably be in my best interest to have
a reasonable comprehension of the material. However, I suspect that if I were
at a cocktail party with Messrs. Kydland and Prescott, and they were discussing
their findings, I'd be scanning for the exits or praying for somebody to start
choking on an hors d'oeuvre to enliven the proceedings.
This isn't to say that economics doesn't have an interesting side; it's just
a bit difficult for most people to get their heads around the implications of
marginal costs and diminishing marginal returns, opportunity costs, the consumption
of durable goods, and other economic argot. Thankfully, the same tools that
economists use to predict market activity and track currency fluctuations, can
also be used to explore such overlooked territory as the relationship between
legalized abortion and crime rates, and the shared practices of real estate
agents and the Ku Klux Klan.
In Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything,
economist Steven D. Levitt (along with co-author Stephen J. Dubner) unearths
shocking connections and makes mincemeat out of conventional wisdoms. For example,
by using the raw data of test scores in Chicago, Levitt is able to demonstrate
how teachers were cheating on the standardized tests taken by their students
and then connects this to cheating sumo wrestlers in Japan. This may not sound
like earth-shattering information, but this first study in Freakonomics
introduces the reader to the unconventional connections that Levitt formulates,
and his irreverent interpretation of them.
The case studies that Levitt writes about are the sort of things you might
think about if you're home alone and the cable is out: Why do drug dealers live
with their mothers? Do parents who name their child Roshanda condemn said child
to a life of career underachievement? Why would a parent keep their child away
from a house where a gun is kept but allow them to go to another home with a
swimming pool, when, statistically speaking, the child has a far better chance
of drowning than being shot?
What makes this book fascinating is the way that Levitt uses advanced economic
techniques -- the kind that would knock me unconscious quicker than chloroform
if I had to read them in a textbook -- and applies them to seemingly unexplainable
phenomena to produce a new discipline: the answers to questions once thought
unanswerable. The answers make for a highly addictive reading experience, free
of the jargon and pie charts that would send most readers running for cover.
A comparison like this is unfair, but since we live in a world where everything
has to be pitched like a Hollywood movie (it's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
meets Legally Blonde) to be ultimately understood, I'm going to do it
anyway. If you're a reader who enjoys books like Fast
Food Nation, then you're bound to enjoy reading Freakonomics. It's
the type of book that will fill your trivia arsenal for months to come. Seriously,
Freakonomics is a highly informative and thoroughly engaging record of
social science that will have you looking at the world around you in a different
light.
|
|
