Freakonomics Essay

policy that most effectively controls and reduces the amount of these emissions we give off. While the government has introduced many subsidization policies, the most efficient policy the government could enact is to raise the taxes on gas. In the Freakonomics podcast episode “Hey Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?” The issue of emission is indirectly discussed. Specifically, the podcast covers the topic of signaling. The term signaling is used to describe the process in which an individual credibly

focuses on one particular study that was published in 2005. It states, "...if DeShawn Williams and Jake Williams sent identical résumés to the same employer, Jake Williams would be more likely to get a callback." Using this quote from the book Freakonomics, it can be inferred that the employer had a stereotypical opinion on DeShawn Williams merely by looking at his name. Although the résumés contained the same information, the cliché idea that the name DeShawn (which is typically considered a "black"

Now you’re asking how does this apply to economics? This example comes from my favorite Economists’ Steven D. Levitt and Steven J. Dubner and the first chapter of their book “Freakonomics, A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything” In this example, the authors' use of economic theory involves demonstrating the existence of cheating among sumo wrestlers. In a sumo tournament, all wrestlers in the top division compete

measure how people respond to those incentives” (Levitt and Dubner, 2005). After reading the book Freakonomics, I more than ever believe that virtually any subject can be picked, and somehow “fit” into economics. To once again quote Levitt and Dubner, “economics is explaining how people get what they want or need”. (Levitt and Dubner, 2005). One of the most interesting topics the two authors of Freakonomics, broached in the book was why drug dealers still live with their mothers. The drug they specifically

credible sources that will have plenty of data that will either support the claim or prove the claim wrong. With the peculiar comparison of crime and abortion, we look at what authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner writes in their book Freakonomics and what Dr. Brian Clowes, director of education and research at Human Life International, writes in his article “Does Abortion Really Reduce Crime?”. The most significant debate contrasting among the two sources is if abortion is the cause of

Economics; is an important subject to understand the workings of finances. The common definition of economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution and consumption of goods. Freakonomics, the title of this book has the reader wondering what this book is about. From the title and even the cover picture it is clear it is not your average text book on economics. Yet, the authors have collected data and analyzed it to come to their conclusions on some unusual hypotheses

After reading Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, it opened my eyes to the most interesting approach to the world. The book name in itself is an odd and unique title. It defines Steven Levitt’s irregular approach to the world of economics and makes you “forget your image of an economist as a crusty professor worried about fluctuating interest rates”, says Publishers Weekly. Steven Levitt focuses his attention on relevant

Perceiving the Actual World Like an Economist Through out the entire book Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner, emphasize how people are constantly responding to incentives, and how these incentives motivate and affect people’s decision making in their daily lives. The authors of this book talk about economics from a different perspective, and they do it by relating unusual and unasked questions to the field of economics. Levitt and Dubner define an incentive as the “means of urging people to do more

acquire their goals. From the ability of researching and understanding statistics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, authors of Freakonomics, prove to the readers that humans are rational beings, and are aware of the benefits and costs of their actions, and that our actions are motivated, and connected by personal motivations or incentives. In the first chapter of Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner focus on that the reaction of cheating is that humans demonstrate in response to incentives. The basics

attachment problems in the future” (National Child Traumatic Stress Network- 2014). Unwanted pregnancy can also lead to child abuse because of the mother not desiring to bear responsibility of having to child to begin with. Dubner and Levitt authors of Freakonomics present unconventional wisdom that “when a woman does not want to have a child, she usually has good reason. She may be unmarried or in a bad marriage. She may consider herself too poor to raise a child. She may think her life is too unstable or