...Throughout reading “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, I found it astounding that there are so many unthinkable outcomes for something uncorrelated. If I had to guess how in the world did crime rates drop, legalization of abortion would not have made it even close to anywhere on my list (Page 137). Through the warped lens of Freakonomics, the world that I see it gives off a different message. One item in regards was Discovery High School. Was Discovery High School really built to help alleviate the flow of students from surrounding areas? Could it have been just another proposition to try and make a new school superior to others or was a just a coincidence that Discovery High School just happens to try and offer the best...
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...Economist Steven D Levitt, in his book Freakonomics, published in 2005, addresses the topic of incentives, decision-making, and parenting, and challenges readers to think critically about what goes on in the world around them while applying tools of economics to their lives. Levitt supports his argument by showing examples of real life incentives, such as schoolteachers making their classes look better, or sumo wrestlers purposely blowing matches for bribes, and even financial incentives, such as making parents pay a fine for every minute they were late picking their kids up from day care. His purpose is to make readers understand that things aren't always what they seem like. For instance, your parents might tell you that watching TV can have...
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...Asia Shelton Mrs. Langstaff Hnrs Economics Critical Analysis March 11, 2013 Freaky Economimcs 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? Why am I asking you all of these seemingly irrelevant questions? Well I’ll tell you why, because to economists Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, these questions aren’t irrelevant at all. “The conventional wisdom is often wrong” (Levitt Dunbar 14) so Levitt looks at the economy in a very unconventional way. Often times, the study of economics is seen as dry, boring, and consisting of mind numbing numbers, uninteresting financial trends, and statistics. Yet in Freakonomics Levitt and Dubner make it interesting, and dare I say, funny. They show us that economics is the study of incentives and how people get what they want, or need, and especially when other people want or need the same thing. I’m very fond of the idea that there is no one cause for an effect. I believe that there are multiple tiny causes that build up over time and then suddenly, and oddly to many people’s surprise, you have this looming and terrible effect. So I was a bit put off at how Levitt only offers one cause for some of the arguments he tries to make. He even says himself in the introduction that, "If you learn how to look at data in the right way, you can explain riddles that otherwise might have seemed impossible...
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...Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner "(Feldman wondered if perhaps the executives cheated out of an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.What he didn't consider is that perhaps cheating was how they got to be executives.)... If morality represents the way we would like the world to work and economics represents how it actually does work, then the story of Feldman's bagel business lies at the very intersection of morality and economics"(46)Levitt, and Dubner. Levitt implements his first rhetorical device, diction, through the use of the phrase "overdeveloped sense of entitlement", this shows that the belief of the author, was that they were stealing simply because they felt that their higher social status made it ok. However the connotation that comes with the word "entitlement" under the circumstances it is used makes me think of more of a snobby stereotypical movie rich persona, such that in a typical celebrity matter they feel that they are in fact above the law.The second thing he does is use italics to emphasize the word "be", the purpose of emphasizing be in this case is to show the contrasting in between his ideas, and of the Feldman, the business man. It also seems to shine an eerie light on to the fact that perhaps, the cheating to get ahead in the corporate ladder was the same principle they applied to stealing the bagels, it was ok, as long as they didn't get caught. Levitt's final rhetorical device was a metaphor when he says " If morality represents the...
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...| | When compared to other industrialised countries the US has one of the most significant homicide rates and crime rates. According to statistics published by the UN in 2010 the probability of being of a homicide victim is more than five times greater in the US than in the Netherlands and close to three times greater than in Canada. However in spite of these statistics and contrary to general public perception the United States have experienced a continued decline of its crime rates since the second half of the 1990’s. In 2010 there were 5.4 homicides per 100,000 persons compared to 9.8 in 1991 at its peak according to the US Bureau of Statistics (2004). Similarly, other statistics[1] published annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Justice statistics[2] have highlighted that violent crimes and property crimes rates have gradually declined, on average, in the US from their height in the beginning of the 1990’s to a low point in 2004 and continues to further decrease in spite of the current economic crisis. One would have expected that the recession would have ended this virtuous circle but instead “crimes of violence began going down in 2007, falling 0.7 percent that year and then an additional 1.9 percent in 2008. The trend accelerated [in 2009] with a 5.5 percent reduction in overall crime ...” (Jerry Markon, The Washington Post...
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...FREAKONOMICS A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Revised and Expanded Edition Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner CONTENTS AN EXPLANATORY NOTE In which the origins of this book are clarified. vii PREFACE TO THE REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION xi 1 INTRODUCTION: The Hidden Side of Everything In which the book’s central idea is set forth: namely, if morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work. Why the conventional wisdom is so often wrong . . . How “experts”— from criminologists to real-estate agents to political scientists—bend the facts . . . Why knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, is the key to understanding modern life . . . What is “freakonomics,” anyway? 1. What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? 15 In which we explore the beauty of incentives, as well as their dark side—cheating. Contents Who cheats? Just about everyone . . . How cheaters cheat, and how to catch them . . . Stories from an Israeli day-care center . . . The sudden disappearance of seven million American children . . . Cheating schoolteachers in Chicago . . . Why cheating to lose is worse than cheating to win . . . Could sumo wrestling, the national sport of Japan, be corrupt? . . . What the Bagel Man saw: mankind may be more honest than we think. 2. How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? 49 In which it is argued that nothing is more powerful than information,...
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...TO Prepared by S. Clayton Palmer and Adjunct Instructor Department of Economics Weber State University & Westminster College of Salt Lake J. Lon Carlson Associate Professor Department of Economics Illinois State University PREFACE Introduction Welcome to the Student’s Guide to Freakonomics! The purpose of this guide is to help you better understand the analyses presented in Freakonomics by providing a sort of “bridge” between the material covered in a traditional course in economic principles and topics addressed in what we consider to be one of the most fascinating books we’ve encountered in economics literature. Many students view economics as a very difficult, if not impossible, course to master.This perception is, however, most likely based on observations of the experiences of other students who did not apply the proper approach to learning economics. In many courses, simple memorization is enough. In economics, we would argue, this is not the case.While you need to understand the meaning of basic terms and concepts, you also need to be able to apply economic concepts in specific situations. In other words, you need to develop the ability to think like an economist.The authors of Freakonomics certainly show the reader how to do just that.The material presented here is intended to make the job a little easier. Organization of the Student’s Guide We organized the material in this guide to help you identify the key points in each chapter and check to ensure that you have...
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...More Than a Numbers Game A Brief Histor y of Accounting Thomas A. King John Wiley & Sons, Inc. More Than a Numbers Game More Than a Numbers Game A Brief Histor y of Accounting Thomas A. King John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Thomas A. King. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability...
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