original Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side By Steven D. Levitt,Stephen J. Dubner (US Edition, Paperback)

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common Why do drug dealers still live with their moms How much do parents really matter How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a muchheralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday lifefrom cheating and crime to sports and childrearingand whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an awardwinning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern lifeanddeath issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentiveshow people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of . . . well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about realestate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, andif the right questions are askedis even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.Bonus material added to the revised and expanded 2006 editionThe original New York Times Magazine article about Steven D. Levitt by Stephen J. Dubner, which led to the creation of this book.Seven Freakonomics columns written for the New York Times Magazine, published between August 2005 and April 2006.Ships from and sold by EXPERAL SINGAPOREPublisher: William Morrow & CompaISBN 13: 9780063032378Condition: Brandnew Binding: paperbackPages: 352Dimensons: 196 x 130 x 23 | 249 (gram)