Freakonomics

Revised Edition

By: Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Narrated by: Stephen J. Dubner

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

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

Critic reviews

"Refreshingly accessible and engrossing." (Publishers Weekly)

Interesting

Most of the topics were interesting except the names. Since that was mostly listing names it was compelling to listen

WOW awesome perspective

Awesome prospective on a very difficult subject, recommended reading for everyone and required reading for millennials!

Interesting

Dr. Levitt explored a number of subjects. Hardly everything. His conclusions are drawn from logic inferences and they seem to make sense. Correlations, as the authors point out, do not demonstrate cause-effect. They are mere indicators. The next guy may have different opinions... All in all, the book makes for an interesting listening.

Gives you a different way to look at data

This book showed me that there is much more to data than what is reported in the main stream news.

Love it!

not only was this book hilarious, but it was so thought provoking. I have a new outlook about the field of economics.

Overall fundamental thinking

I loved the book mostly for the reason how it lays a foundation of how economists think. I was a little surprised to see that it is not that different from how an engineer would think is the same scenario. Really awesome book if you are looking for some mind blowing studies in the past.

Fascinating

I love a good conversation and this book is chock full of them. I'm not convinced by every idea he puts out there but I am quite intrigued by them and enjoy having this discourse with others who have read this book or seen the movie.

Full of fun facts and data

I thought this book was good it was a lot of fun read a lot of fun to really understand how things actually work I was a little surprised on how the clocks clocks clan was torn down and also I was very surprised on how the abortion in the United States Rowe vs wade lowered the crime rate in the country .. It’s worth the read give it a shot

Great book on understanding why

This book was recommended by a co-worker, and I am grateful. This did a great job of showing how to dig into certain facts and discover and understand the factors that lead to it. Things are broken down into easy to understand processes, and it's easy to follow the reasoning. The authors did a great job of helping understand so much more about what is going on and how to discover it for yourself.

An Insight into life's details explained.

You can see how a small detail or just the actions of a single person, can have a great impact.