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)

Worth it

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This was one of the better audibles I've every listened to. I'm almost disappointed I listened to it, because others seem poor, now. It definitely helped that one of the authors narrated their own book.

The content of the book was interesting. They do a good job of spelling out their statistics. Towards the end of the book, though, the part on most popular names, they lost some credibility. Perhaps they didn't lose credibility as much as my skepticism was most acute.

All in all, I appreciated the book. It was easy to listen to and offers some intriguing findings.

What about Stephen J. Dubner’s performance did you like?

Pacing was great.

Does, do, what if…

Freethinkers guide to unlock the endless possibilities of questions blue mean in every day life.

very good for my first economics book

I thought it was a great book. I wasn't entirely what I was looking for because it is more of a story of economics through a certain man's eyes. I still say it's good I was just hoping for a more mathematical economics book

An Interesting, but Flawed Look into Trends

There are a lot of interesting stories in this book. I particularly liked the study of cheating in sumo wrestling. If you want statistic based entertainment that causes to you to think, then this a great book for you. If you want the statistical proof that their claims are accurate, look elsewhere. This book is convincing, but only because the stories are interesting. If you are a skeptical person, you might get annoyed at this book.

logical fallacies from those who should know bettr

There are musical "commercial break" stings through out. why, I have no idea.

Regression analysis is "art more than science". what this means is a researcher can, and will, massage the data to say what they want. Sure you don't need to go into the nitty gritty but some peer review would be nice, none of which was covered.

"Increased prison sentences account for a third of the drop off the crime in the nineties" with no justification.

These guys sure do love themselves. There are interesting analysis in here, but they fall into the same traps they claim to be helping others avoid. for example: Child car seats might not stop many deaths, but what about injuries?

despite claims to the contrary, these two do have an agenda and push it. Take anything in this book with a entire mine worth of salt.

Freakin Good

I was afraid that the book might not meet my expectation, created in the podcasts. But enjoyed every minute.
Motivates ways of seeing the application of economic tools in everyday questions. Particularly today where "Small" is the new "BIG".

Amazing book! Makes you think

I’m sorry but I didn’t enjoy the way Dubner read the book. But the book was GREAT! My mind is boggled!

Too lengthy and too less useful information

Too much unnecessary details to the stories that the authors describe. They don’t add too much information and a lot of them can be just summarized.

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.

If you like the podcast, this is more of the same

I like what these guys present, and it felt like an extended podcast, some of it I thought had heard in the podcast, but also other stuff, so not a rehash (or pre hash). Not an unworthy purchase.