Economics In Steven Levitt's Freakonomics

Author Wheelan writes, "Life is about trade-offs, and so is economics." Indeed, so is Naked Economics. This book promises to be a good introduction to economics for the layman. Throughout the book, the author uses easy-to-understand language and vivid examples to illustrate his points in strategic places maintaining a sense of lightness with the readers in reading the material. Here is a summary of each of the 12 Chapters of the book Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan.

In chapter 2 of Freakonomics the main argument is that the absence of information can be used for personal gain. The main example used to display this tactic is when the KKK is compared to real estate agents. Although the crafty practice of real estate agents is in no way similar to the horrors of the KKK, they have a distinct similarity when it comes to the hoarding of information. The majority of the chapter focuses on the history of the KKK and Stetson Kennedy’s effort to stop it through the infiltration and exposure via radio of the Klan. Since the Klan was dependant on their violent—despite not being extremely violent—reputation, the disclosure of the information they had withheld from the public rendered them powerless. The narrators

In the book, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science talks about the basics of economics and how an individual or business can make the most of their overall happiness. Wheelan does the justice of taking professional economist ideas and language to the level of where beginner and/or individuals that are looking for an easier way to understand economics. Wheelan is has had a lot of experience with economics, by graduating and becoming a professor at Dartmouth College, as well as, the author and founder of the Centrist Political Party. He does a good job on breaking down a few of the implantations that economics has for an easy to explain. This

Freakonomics By Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner is based on these fundamental ideas: Incentives, conventional wisdom, “Experts”-use their informational advantage

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The book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is a book that takes you through facts and statistics that seem reasonable and logical at the beginning but soon they dissect it and show you the true side of the statistic. The whole premise of the book is to show you the “hidden side of everything. (Cover page)” Like how dropping crime rate throughout the 90’s drastically dropped seemingly overnight. This drop was associated with better policing strategies, this idea is great for reassuring the public, but is it really true? Turns out it was probably closer linked to the legalizing of abortion. The authors of Freakonomics throughout the book think outside the box in order to show you

1. In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner built the book on the foundation of incentives. Incentives are described as a means of motivation that kick people to do more good or less bad in their daily lives. As the entire book hits the different types of incentives, economic, moral, and social, chapter one is the chapter that mainly focuses on economic incentives. Levitt and Dubner describes economic incentives by stating, “The chance of going to jail—thereby losing your job, your house, and your freedom, all of which are essentially economic penalties—is certainly a

Politicians who stretch the truth on topics in their statistics to get a supported outcome from the public. As there are many more examples of conventional wisdom, the others at Freakonomics are only challenging the false accusations. In chapter 3 sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh gives us a detailed insight on the economics of drug dealers and their street gangs. The common perception was destroyed, that crack dealers are wealthy human beings. Compared to the McDonald's franchises, there are comparatively few head positions prospering from the income after paying for the labor of thousands of workers. Even then, most street dealers make less than minimum wage, and carry a one in four risk of death. Conventional wisdom is hard to correct. It is often created by the experts in a particular field. Sometimes observations and theories are made without any recognition to factual evidence. According to Levitt and Dubner “journalists need experts as badly as experts need journalists”. Journalist and experts at like bees to honey, when you have one, you will not only have, but rely on the other. Once a expert ever so whispers a deduction to a journalist that assumption will be spread throughout the media, passed on to other experts all relying on the previous error, making it seem credible. As something is repeated often enough it becomes an unquestionable common

As an avid problem solver, I had often been encouraged to take up Mathematics as a degree. However, I find myself engulfed in an increasingly uncertain economic landscape, where even the most intuitive economists cannot prevent suboptimal outcomes. In Mathematics I enjoy the challenge of finding the right answer, but the challenge of finding the right answer where one might not even exist has drawn me towards economics.

Freakonomics written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Copyright, 2005 by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. A non-fiction book about the intertwining discourses of pop culture and economics. Steven David Levitt is an American economist who is well known for his work that specifically focuses on crime, and the connection between legalized abortion and the effect it has on crime rates. Mr. Levitt is currently the “William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics” at the University of Chicago. He coauthored the book Freakonomics with Stephen J. Dubner who is an American journalist who has written four books as well as several articles. He is best known however, for his work with Steven Levitt. The intended audience for this book is high school seniors and older. This is the intended audience for this book because the course economics is offered to high school seniors, only. Therefore, it would be logical to offer this piece of literature to this age group as a piece of the class or for better understanding of the subject, economics. This book is also intended for ages older than high school because it is a higher level reading, some of the vocabulary words used throughout the book would be difficult for people of younger age groups to comprehend. The main point the author wishes to make in this book is to challenge prior beliefs and the make the reader see normal, everyday occurrences through a different lense. Although there is not one uniform

Economics is often called the "science of decision making." The decisions that economists analyze range from personal decisions such as how big a pizza to order or whether to buy or lease a new car to the decisions the federal government makes about things like the size of our military. Economists use information about these, and other decisions, to develop indicators that can be used to determine the health of our economy. Just as a physician relies on indicators such as temperature, blood pressure and heart rate to determine the health of a patient, economists use indicators like gross domestic product growth, the unemployment rate and the rate of inflation to predict our

According to Investopedia, Economics can be defined as The large set of interrelated economic production and consumption activities which aid in determining how scarce resources are allocated. Known this, empowers administrators with the wisdom of how to distribute resources, which areas need to be improved and which are the most important issues at the present. This information is used by policy makers in order to be competent with their responsibilities. Economics tools help policymakers predict how consumers and producers will react if they implement certain policies (Teitelbaum, Wilensky 2013). This means that understanding how the market

When I was first given this assignment I was extremely perplexed at how I would even begin to finish it. I had no idea how economics related to my life in anyway. I hadn’t thought about it critically and I struggling terribly. Thanks to some much needed help from a fellow classmate, he allowed me to get an idea of things from his own essay. After reading not one, but two other essays, I was so surprised at how oblivious I had been. I never realized that just about everything that goes on in my daily life is, in fact, economics. I never realized that from the things I buy to the money I earn from working is all economics. The things I miss out of while working or going to school is a complete opportunity cost. Or even

My independent research in the field started with my curious interest in the processes of how decisions made by individuals and governments, what are the main factors encouraged them to choose particular decision over other options and the outcomes of those decisions. Then, I started to read theories of great Economists, such as, Keynes, Freidman , Devenport, Kinnerly and Mason who wrote on decision-making and the ability of individual to interpret the information. Additionally, there were theories by De Bondt , Clark , Tversky and Kehnman who argued that human psychology is interconnected with economics which cannot be ignored. Learning those theories and comparing them with the real life happenings, my enthusiasm to get deeper insights of economics increased. Encouraged by this, I have compiled

Even though most of the theorems we use today in economics derive from analytical methods, the need to make decisions or solve real economical issues nowadays