Also: how can we stop confusing correlation with causation?
…people discount future gains and losses), loss aversion (how much the valuation of losses outweigh gains of the same magnitude), financial literacy (understanding financial information and decisions) and debt literacy…
Also: how can we stop confusing correlation with causation?
For decades, G.D.P. has been the yardstick for measuring living standards around the world. Martha Nussbaum would rather use something that actually works.
Reginald Dwayne Betts spent more than eight years in prison. Today he’s a Yale Law graduate, a MacArthur Fellow, and a poet. His nonprofit works to build libraries in prisons…
In our collective zeal to reform schools and close the achievement gap, we may have lost sight of where most learning really happens — at home.
The gist: in our collective zeal to reform schools and close the achievement gap, we may have lost sight of where most learning really happens — at home.
Artist Wendy MacNaughton knows the difficulty of sitting in silence and the power of having fun. She explains to Steve the lessons she’s gleaned from drawing hospice residents, working in…
For years, Gary Cohn thought he’d be the next C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs. Instead, he became the “adult in the room” in a chaotic administration. Cohn talks about the fights…
…all about the age you examine. While we each graduated by age 22, and Brooks probably did too, this isn’t the norm.? In fact, fewer than half of those who…
Bring on the Pain! It’s not about how much something hurts — it’s how you remember the pain. This week, lessons on pain from the New York City subway, the…
…May — 38 June — 25 July — 29 August — 31 September — 26 October — 35 November — 22 December –27 32.4 percent of the players were born…
Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign has been just as unorthodox. He has just announced he’s stepping down, well before…
…2 Luton Town 12 20 13 5 Blackpool 10 14 22 7 Watford 8 26 15 4 Portsmouth 8 37 6 2 Wigan Athletic 7 2 17 8 Notts County…
…In case it is difficult for you to read, the convenience store seems to have renamed itself “We Have 22 Years Left On Our Lease.” When I asked the driver,…
Bill Frist was a transplant surgeon before serving in the Senate, where he drove controversial legislation on embryonic stem cells and end-of-life care. Did he change politics? Or did politics…
In the early 20th century, Max Weber argued that Protestantism created wealth. Finally, there are data to prove if he was right. All it took were some missionary experiments in…
Annamaria Lusardi, the doyenne of financial (il)literacy reseach (she has appeared on this blog and on Freakonomics Radio), is back with more depressing news. The Wall Street Journal summarizes: In…
In this special crossover episode, People I (Mostly) Admire host Steve Levitt admits to No Stupid Questions co-host Angela Duckworth that he knows almost nothing about psychology. But once Angela…
She’s the author of the bestselling book Grit, and a University of Pennsylvania professor of psychology — a field Steve says he knows nothing about. But once Angela gives Steve…
A reader named Philip Serghini writes in: Great podcast about financial literacy and clean hands. I’ll try to refrain from sending hate mail to the attorney who espoused not teaching…
(Photo: Stella Benezra) Freakonomics fans will already know that financial literacy is a hot issue for researchers – it’s in everybody’s best interest to get people making better financial decisions,…
It’s time to do away with feel-good stories, gut hunches, and magical thinking.
…about the risks of climate change, and reports the surprising finding that higher levels of scientific knowledge are correlated with greater polarization on the issue: Greater scientific literacy and numeracy…
A 19th-century Georgia land lottery may have something to teach us about today’s income inequality.
There’s a nasty secret about hot-button topics like global warming — knowledge is not always power.
We’re working on a new Freakonomics Radio podcast about financial illiteracy, a topic we’ve visited a few times on this blog. Two guests you’ll hear from in the episode have…
…Using individual-level census data, he finds that getting rid of malaria led to higher wages and literacy rates for children who grew up post-eradication. Wages rose 10 to 40 percent…
