3 Reasons Why You Must Read Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything By Sam Newman

3 Reasons Why You Must Read Freakonomics: 

A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything 

By Sam Newman

Freakonomics is a popular book published in 2005 by economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner.  Here are three reasons to read it:

- Learn about economics

Freakonomics is a book about economics that focuses on how things from everyday life work. 
Economics is, “the study of how society uses its limited resources. Economics is a social science that
deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.” (https://study.com/
academy/lesson/what-is-economics-definition-history-timeline-importance.html) This book explains
ideas like how incentives are found in three forms: social (e.g., avoiding people looking down at you),
economic (e.g., not wasting your money), and moral (e.g., not doing something you are uncomfortable
with). This book also explains where the information the authors shared originated from by citing actual
data and statistical analyses of those data to find answers to their questions.

- The book is not set up in normal story format

Freakonomics, instead of being set up with a normal plot structure (introduction, rising action, climax,
falling action, and resolution), is written in a way that it discusses six different interesting topics all
connected by the economics point of view. Each topic is unique and independent. You can read the chapters
in any order you want while still having fun and understanding what is happening. The topics/chapters in
order are: (1) What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?, (2) How Is the Ku Klux
Klan Like A Group of Real-Estate Agents?, (3) Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?, (4)
Where Have all the Criminals Gone?, (5) What Makes A Perfect Parent?, and (6) Perfect Parenting, Part
II; or: Would a Roshanda By Any Other Name Smell As Sweet? During the time of writing this blog post,
we are all under the Governor’s stay-at-home order, and I know that some of you are going to be reading
many books. Freakonomics will offer a refreshing break from standard books that have a plot.

- The book debunks myths and common conceptions

Freakonomics uses data to debunk popular beliefs held by the public. For example, 
Freakonomics showed that Chicago teachers were cheating to help their students on standardized 
tests (by fixing students’ answers after they turned in the tests), in order to make themselves look like they were better teachers. The reason they were cheating is because in Chicago at that time 
teachers were provided an economic incentive of $25k if their students achieved a certain standard 
on annual tests. The economists proved the teachers had cheated, using three methods: (1) the 
students’ scores would all have a spike in scoring in one year that was not matched by their previous 
or subsequent year (for example, a student scored 3.8 in 5th grade, scored 7.1 in 6th grade, and scored
5.6 in 7th grade), (2) teachers would correct the same 15 questions for the majority of their class 
(which was easily caught by the grading machine as cheating, because almost all of the students got 
this set of 15 questions right), and (3) the tests were readministered by surprise to the same students 
and the teachers did not get a chance to edit the test answers (the teachers of classrooms with much 
lower scores the second time were fired). The authors show how economists can use statistics to 
prove falsehoods by using converging sources of data.
As a second example, around the 1970’s there was a very large amount of street crime (80% increase
in street crime from 1955 to 1970) and no one knew how to get rid of it. Suddenly between 1995 and
2000, the teenage murder rate fell by more than 50%. Freakonomics then goes on to state that people of
the time believed that the falling crime rate was due to recent gun control laws; however, correlation
does not always equal causation. More gun control does not explain the falling crime rates because most
criminals get guns illegally from the blackmarket more cheaply. The authors use data to argue that in
reality, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case legalizing abortion actually had the biggest effect on crime
reduction, because children who would have been born had a 50% more likely chance to grow up in
poverty and a 60% more likely chance to have one parent--and these factors make a person 2 times
more likely to commit a crime. Using various data analyses, they argue that legalizing abortion stopped
many possible criminals from existing. Both of these examples, and many more in the book,
demonstrate how economists view the world. Economists use data and theories of incentives to explain
how the world works, which is often surprising and counterintuitive. I give this book a 10 out of 10, and
think you would enjoy reading it too.