Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages of people who “sound black” when they talk to those who do not. His main finding: blacks who “sound black” earn salaries that are 10 percent lower than blacks who do not “sound black,” even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, . . .
Cigarette advertisers generally don’t mention cancer, although Silk Cut seemed to use it (in the form of an alligator) to tell smokers they’re cool for tempting death. Playing up your product’s risk isn’t a new strategy. This whiskey ad from the 1990’s, sent in by Freakonomics reader Douglas Kysar, makes vice look pretty sexy. Photo: Douglas Kysar The ad, from . . .
Starbucks, which may hope its new calorie listings will create demand amongst the calorie conscious, should love graphs like this one from HitWise: As you might expect, the chart shows an increase in online searches for “calories” and “diets” the first week in January, when resolutions are fresh. You might think that an April spike in “calories” searches is simply . . .
While advertising may try to mislead you, this piece of marketing — which a Freakonomics reader named Matthew Limber found on his milk cap — takes a completely honest (and apparently self-sabotaging) approach. Photo: Matthew Limber So did Listerine’s TV ads from 2005, which claimed that “Listerine’s as effective as floss at fighting plaque and gingivitis,” but cautioned, “There’s no . . .
I’m sure that most academics are used to the following: Occasionally I write a scientific paper, an OpEd, or a blog entry in which I wade into some controversy or another, and in the ensuing few days receive some fairly vitriolic messages in my personal inbox. I’m not objecting — after all, it seems that I’ve had my chance to . . .
Proven: … If done clinically, it doesn’t mean much. … That data retention laws influence citizen behavior. … The fallacy of the National Association of Realtors’ sales numbers. … The economic impact of a local Chamber of Commerce. … A rural village in the Belgian province of West-Flanders.
Photo by Steven Stewart of his son. The essence of a free market is exchange — you and I raise our utility voluntarily by exchanging things with which we are endowed. I wonder how early people learn this idea in a free-market economy. My five-year-old grandson had a Mylar helium-filled balloon, and his two-year-old brother had another one. They were . . .
From the department of curious legal precautions: Apple’s iTunes licensing agreement — which you have already agreed to if you’ve installed the latest version of the popular music software — contains a clause which prohibits anyone from using the program … … for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture, or production of . . .
There’s no doubt that Americans are currently frustrated by high gas prices. And certainly many voters believe that “something oughta be done about it.” But why? Here’s a simple taxonomy of concerns: 1. Relative prices: Are people frustrated that a gallon of gas now requires more foregone “stuff.” Or alternatively phrased, are they concerned about the low relative price of . . .
Most swimmers competing in the Bejing Olympics this summer believe they will fail without a new $600 swimsuit, The Economist reports. In February Speedo introduced its LZR swimsuit and 38 of the 42 world swimming records broken since then were by swimmers wearing the suit — which has no seams and takes 20 minutes to get into. Do good swimmers . . .
Iowans have taken to calling this week’s devastating flooding “our Katrina.” Katrina does come to mind when you look at these photos of Cedar Rapids engulfed by the Cedar River. But Iowa is lucky to have been spared a Katrina-sized death toll. In fact, far fewer lives have been claimed by this round of flooding than by the floods that . . .
Freakonomics reader Rich Beckman took this photo in Washington, D.C. on the grounds of the Capitol building: Photo: Rich Beckman Then he asks a natural question: “If the hydrant isn’t working, what does it matter if someone parks there?” Dubner asked a similar question on this blog: why is parking in front of fire hydrants prohibited in the first place . . .
Major League Baseball teams that travel through three time zones or more are at a significant disadvantage against their time-adjusted opponents, according to a new study by neurologist W. Christopher Winter of the Martha Jefferson Sleep Medicine Center. The performance impairment diminishes with each day a given team has to acclimate to the new time zone. But the circadian advantage, . . .
Continuing his push for a gas-tax holiday, Sen. John McCain told a town-hall session last week that he “trust[s] the people and not the so-called economists to give the American people a little relief.” So who do “the people” trust to give them economic relief? By a margin of 50 percent to 44 percent, it’s Sen. Barack Obama, according to . . .
Does an “unpopular” name make a criminal? (HT: Ryan Barker) (Earlier) A teenager makes plastic rot faster. Professor threatens to sue over student “anti-intellectualism.” More ways to use less gas. (Earlier)
Between 1960 and 2000, Brazil’s fertility rate plummeted from 6.3 to 2.3. The only other country with a comparable decline during that period was China, under its rigid one-child policy. But what was behind the Brazilian fertility plunge? One major factor may have been the influence of soap operas, according to a fascinating new working paper by Eliana La Ferrara, . . .
Reader Leonardo Piccioli sent this photo of one employee’s adaptation to smoke in Buenos Aires caused by natural fires nearby. In a similar fashion, Americans should begin adapting to man-made pollution instead of trying to reverse the inevitable, writes Spencer Reiss in Wired. “Climate change is inevitable,” he writes, and we should “get used to it” by focusing our energies . . .
You may like Katherine Heigl because she is very pretty, but there are other reasons to like her too: She is really, really candid. If you’re not too busy looking for more links to Heigl pictures, you may want to read a bit about the economics of candor in this (gated) paper by Oliver E. Williamson.
Here’s a good way for the government to reduce the heat it’s taking about high gas prices: giving every American a miles-per-gallon meter (worth about $200). The Web site Hypermiling claims that knowing your gas mileage is the best way to cut gas consumption. Using a meter and gas-saving driving techniques, self proclaimed “King of Hypermilers” Wayne Gerdes recently got . . .
As the average price of gasoline nationwide topped $4 a gallon this week, Sen. John McCain said he would renew his call for a summer gas tax holiday. The idea was roundly panned by economists (including the ones on this blog) when McCain and Sen. Hillary Clinton first raised it in May. This time around, McCain says he won’t “pretend . . .
Because the talent that made them rich in the first place lies in something — television hosting, for example, or heavyweight boxing — that doesn’t teach them anything about how to stay rich. Brian Cuban offers further insights. Last week, Justin Wolfers wondered why Belgium seems to have so few celebrities, and he issued you a challenge to name some. . . .
Where can you go to get a $1 billion dinner? Zimbabwe, where runaway inflation has given rise to mulit-million dollar loaves of bread as the country’s currency moves even further into collapse. So could now be the best time to invest in Zimbabwe? Oxford University economist Paul Collier writes in the Boston Review that Tanzania, which suffered a self-imposed economic . . .
Election fraud by the numbers. (Earlier) Tax alcopops and they go for the strong stuff. (HT: Mathew Linley) Debunking myths about the developing world. (HT: Benjamin Childers) Museums love impostors.
Are you driving less than you used to? As Dubner blogged last week, Americans logged 11 billion fewer miles on the road in March of this year than they did in March 2007. That contributed to a cut of 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted by the U.S. in the first quarter of 2008. The rise of gasoline . . .
Inevitable: … Vista at your workplace. … Lord of the Rings on Blu-ray. … Hearing loss after age 50. … Star Wars references in response to Bill Gates‘s holographic appearance. … A clash between parents and kids about whom they should date/marry.
Fares for a trip to Goree Island in Senegal (the Communaute Financiere Africaine franc, CFA, is the Senegalese currency) break down like this: Foreigners: Adults- CFA 5,000 (US $13) Children- CFA 2,500 (US $6) Africans: Adults- CFA 2,500 (US $6) Children- CFA 1,500 (US $3.60) Senegalese: Adults- CFA 1,500 (US $3.60) Children- CFA 500 (US $1.20) Johannes Kiess In this . . .
Screen Shot from the Marketplace Web site. It’s next to impossible to find an economist who will support a gas tax holiday, but cutting the gas tax altogether is an option in Budget Hero, a surprisingly entertaining online game that puts you in charge of balancing the federal budget. Based on budget models from the Congressional Budget Office, Budget Hero . . .
Lots of people want to buy property in outer-space, argues blogger Glenn Reynolds. He points to customers of Lunar Embassy who pay $16 or $20 for novelty acres on the moon. But to go from gimmicky certificates to serious lunar (and Martian) real estate development takes a serious economic incentive — like the concept of “land claims recognition legislation,” as . . .
The statistics of the one-hit wonder. (HT: David Fortune)(Earlier) How to donate your organs and get paid leave. (HT: Nick Mulcahy)(Earlier) Bad business? It’s Hollywood’s fault. An insurance policy against extinction? (HT: Spectre)
What kind of people use check-cashing places? How do they work? Do such places contribute to inequality? And most important — why are people paying for their own money? In their video “Checkmate,” the Internets Celebrities, a.k.a. Dallas Penn and Rafi Kam, explore these questions and eventually, in their words, “make it rain.”
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