preview

Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics

Good Essays

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s in their book: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, portray how economics is an important tool in studying society. What remains common to all the stories is the message that every situation can be dealt with easily if one has the ability to view things in a new way. Random topics related to economics are dealt with in it’s various chapters. Some of them include how cheating is a common factor between sumo wrestlers and teachers, information asymmetry and why drug dealers live their moms. All these topics deal with a common aspect i.e., how economics represents morality. The first three chapters of the book indicate the same.
The first chapter, "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?’, discusses incentives. Here Levitt brings up the point of how incentives play an important role to help people get what they want. It’s not just students alone, but also the …show more content…

The book identifies a common theme among these various topics. When it comes to analysing the society, the underlying principles remain the same. With the help of different data collections and analysis, it forces the readers to think sensitively as to how people should behave in a society. This is the reason why I found the book to be quite informative and interesting.
The story telling approach is what I found common between both, Freakonomics and The Joy of Economics. Both of these focus on how economics is not only about dealing with money, but it is a phenomena that every individual can relate to in his day to day life. Difference in individual’s behaviour is responsible for different perception of costs and benefits related to economics. This is the highlight of both the books; how economics can help people to make optimum use of the limited resources that have been provided to

Get Access