Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (2005) written by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (2005) (Book) written by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
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Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Book)

written by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

April 12, 2005
 
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The book is a collection of economic articles written by Levitt, an expert who has already gained a reputation for applying economic theory to diverse subjects not usually covered by "traditional" economists; he does, however, accept the standard neoclassical microeconomic model of rational utility-maximization. In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner argue that economics is, at root, the study of incentives. The book's topics include: 
 
* Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers (See below) 
* Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents 
* Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers 
* Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion may have played in reducing crime. (Levitt explored this topic in an earlier paper entitled "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.") 
* Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education 
* Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children