Freakonomics Research Paper

“Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life”(Levitt and Dubner 12). Levitt and Dubner once mentioned in their book “Freakonomics”. According to Oxford dictionary, incentives are something tends to incite to action or greater effort, as a reward offered for increased productivity (“incentives”). In business field, incentives are something given by bosses to encourage their employees to endeavour in bringing benefits to their business. For a simple example, the employee who hits the monthly or year sales target will get cash or prizes as incentives. Apparently, these incentives are something that motivates employees maintains their great performance and also to motivate other employee, whoever wants to get the incentives, work harder.

The intended audience of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s Freakonomics is made up of middle class Americans and comprised of adults and teenagers with a basic education and a broad knowledge of a wide range of subjects. Since Levitt and Dubner reference a large variety of topics, it is imperative for the audience to also be familiar with a wide variety of subjects or at the very least to be aware of popular culture and government. For example, when Levitt and Dubner reference a Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, where a young woman named Norma McCorvey was “...the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit seeking to legalize abortion” they establish their audience as one that would be educated enough to know the fundamentals of some of the most important events in American history (Levitt and Dubner 5). By referencing the Roe v. Wade case, a court case which is generally considered to be common knowledge for Americans, Levitt and Dubner reveal that their audience must be comprised of

In her article, “Stop Blaming Teachers”, Anne Perrin points out the pressures currently facing teachers in the public education systems. Pressures brought on by programs such as No Child Left Behind and standardized testing, the results of which determine many schools’ funding. Perrin, a teacher in the state of Texas, has personally experience these plights. Teachers are browbeat with threats of humiliation and intervention into pandering to students. Perrin points out, “If a student knows he/she can make up an assignment four weeks late, why rush? Would you?” (pg 58). Perrin’s article connects the intimidation brought on by administrative and/or governmental requirements and the teachers acquiescing to preparing the students to take the tests. Failure to do so results in unfavorable

Since getting at least eight wins is so crucial, seven wins is the tipping point for many wrestlers to make deals, bribes, and promises. For example, a wrestler with a 7-7 record fighting a wrestler with an 8-6 record on the final day of the special tournament would be desperate to reach eight wins. The predicted chance of the 7-7 wrestler winning is 48.7%, however the data reflects the actual chance of winning at 79.6%. When the wrestlers return to normal tournaments, the data shows the 8-6 wrestlers almost always win when fighting the former 7-7 wrestlers. This data suggests that wrestlers who are desperate to raise their ranking and stay in the ‘sumo elite’ collude with opponents to ensure themselves a win during the special tournaments. Sumo wrestling is the national sport of Japan,

In Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s Freakonomics, they use unconventional wisdom to explain certain events. They use very solid data in order to support their conclusions about certain events. However, some of their conclusions suffer from errors in reasoning, or rather, fallacies. Although they have done several different types of fallacies, the main one they’ve done is the either-or choice.

Freakonomics is a humorous and intriguing book about taking off the top layer of a situation and understanding what is happening underneath. Through everyday examples Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner take perspectives that are unheard of in any other writing while simultaneously comparing the most unique and uncommon ideas to each other. As they study everyday life, readers see insight to the ways in which the world really functions and runs. As they study the world the authors continue to ask questions, thus continuing to challenge the reader to seek for a deeper answer. Through these highly untypical questions, Levitt and Dubner are able to display that the root of economics itself is incentives.

Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. And understanding them or, often, ferreting them out—is the key to solving just about any riddle, from violent crime to sports cheating to online dating.There are three basic incentives economic, moral and social. How do we profit and what incentives drive us to act unethical? The author describes the research he used to identify a number of Chicago public school teachers who helped their students cheat on standardized tests. According to Levitt & Dubner “In 1996, the Chicago Public School System implemented high-stakes

In chapter one of Freakonomics, the authors discuss several key themes. These themes include cheating and incentives. Cheating includes anything from a little white lie to get your way or even committing fraud. The authors use simple concepts like these and tie them into real-world situations using research and exploration of such topics. Among these cheaters are school teachers, sumo wrestlers, and office workers.

Parenting is an excellent system in how we raise children, but much pressure is added in raising them to live a successful life. Can it be done, and what should a parent do? These are some of the questions that Steven Levitt attempts to give reasons to in his book Freakonomics, and with it are there arguments and theories on how a parent can accomplish this. Levitt makes a good argument in how economic status of the parents affects the success of future children, but I would reevaluate his argument concerning the importance of how you treat your children, and the way his inferences are concrete.

Within its 300 or so pages, Freakonomics manages to cover a vast scope of topics that typically wouldn’t be seen as related at all, let alone bound within the same two covers of a best-selling book. From sumo wrestlers to real-estate agents to drug dealers, Levitt and Dubner delve into these and many other unconventional topics in a way that shines a new light on all of them--in a way that an economist would look at them.

1.In the book, Freakonomics, the authors discuss about a group called the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK was very popular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the article “27 Important Facts Everyone Should Know About The Black Panthers” by The Huffington Post, a group called the Black Panthers was also popular in the twentieth century. The Black Panthers differ from the KKK in many ways, for example the Black Panthers wore black leather jackets and black berets, opposed to the KKK white sheets and hoods. A major difference between the two group was that while the KKK was hunting down black people, the Black Panthers were trying to protect the black community.Another notable difference between the two groups is that the KKK was aided by the

When discussing economics, it can be difficult to make the topic exciting, interesting, or understandable to a populous audience. Steven Levitt understood this challenge, and accepted it head on with cunning wit. He recognized the importance in ‘hooking’ their audience while presenting credible and spectacular data that still could interest the average Joe. His interest in the common man was a part of their mission to inform audiences that the world’s issues are not as black and white as “experts” claim. In the straightforward work “Freakonomics”, Levitt used interrogative sentences, simple language, and anecdotes in order to support their message that the world’s actions are not always caused by the usual suspects.

Author Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s, “#1 New York Times Bestseller” Freakonomics, is based on how they believe economics relates to past, present and future times and events around the world. Economics is apart of our society no matter what or how we look at it. Economics deals with production, distribution and consumption of how goods and services interact with our every day society. Throughout the story of Freakonomics, incentives, profit, competition and supply and demand are all factors of how society deals as a whole.

summarizing the entire point of the first book: “If pressed, you could boil it down to four words: People respond to incentives.” Incentives are basically the gains—whether actual, potential, or perceived—to be had by acting a certain way. So Levitt and Dubner would say that people are motivated to act as they do by what they can gain by those actions...the Freakonomics team gives plenty of evidence for this conclusion. Time and again they present some bizarre trend in human activity and then demonstrate that these people are merely responding to an incentive, whether it be financial, social, psychological, emotional, etc. Some of the most powerful incentives they identify are money, power, and fear.

I found it very helpful how Levitt and Dubner included an introduction to this book. The title Freakonomics, gave me an idea that it’s going to be about economics, however I wasn’t exactly sure. In the intro, both the authors explain why they are writing this book and how they are going to inform us about the hidden side of everything. The way the authors open this book was really helpful and it gave me any idea of what to expect. Now that I know what this book is going to be about I can’t wait to read about the hidden sides. For many of the readers this is a new experience and along with them, I am also expecting to learn something new.