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Steven D. Levitt

A Freakonomics Quiz: Which Golfer Do I Look Like When I Swing?

I recently began taking golf lessons for the first time since I was 13 years old. I got to the range early, and my new teacher, Pat Goss, was finishing up a lesson with another student over on the putting green. He eventually made his way over towards me and introduced himself.

3/3/11

Why Isn't Helen Keller a Bigger Deal?

Given the sort of topics that elementary schools emphasize these days (e.g., a few weeks back, it was national anti-bullying day; my 10-year-old has painstakingly spelled out “Save the Earth” on her bedroom door), shouldn’t Helen Keller be front and center in the curriculum?

3/2/11

Sumo: More of the Same

I can’t say that I am surprised by the latest sumo headline from the Associated Press.

2/2/11

Scorecasting: A Guest Post

When my wife saw the cover of the new book Scorecasting by Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim, which was sitting on my bedside table, all she could do was shake her head.

1/25/11

Are NFL Coaches Starting to Listen to Economists?

Are NFL coaches starting to listen to economists?
My gut feeling is that the answer to that question is almost certainly a resounding “no.” There are at least three pieces of data that hint at the possibility that economists might be making some headway.

1/19/11

Year-End Tax Planning To-Do List

A check-list of things to take care of before December 31 to make sure you minimize your tax bill.

12/28/10

The Best Thing About the Freakonomics Podcast?

I was talking to an economics Ph.D. student the other day. Presumably hoping to generate some goodwill, he told me how much he enjoys the Freakonomics podcasts.
I asked him what he liked best about them. He gave an answer that I never would have guessed, and that would likely only come from a Ph.D. type.

12/8/10

One-Second Commercials

I remember as a kid growing up watching TV, every once in a while someone at the station would make a mistake and start the wrong commercial. It would run for a second or two, and then the person in charge would realize the mistake and immediately cut to some other commercial or to the actual show.

12/7/10

Better Late Than Never: The Explanation for a Puzzling Pattern in Gas Prices

More than two years ago, I blogged on this site about a puzzling pattern that I had observed in gas prices.

12/6/10

Why Are the Roofs of School Buses Painted White?

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of school buses that are yellow everywhere except for the roof. I was perplexed as to why. According to this nearly 20-year-old New York Times article, the reason is that white tops are more reflective, lowering the temperature inside the bus by an average of 10 degrees during the summer. The source of that statistic is a very non-scientific sounding North Carolina pilot study.

11/2/10

Predicting the Outcome of Tomorrow's Midterm Election

The first academic paper I ever published was an empirical analysis of the “midterm gap” in American politics. (I couldn’t find an ungated version, but it’s not really worth reading anyway!)

11/1/10

A Great Excuse Not to Hand Out Halloween Candy

An emergency meeting of the Delaware Witches Association.

11/1/10

The Theory of Interstellar Trade

I did not think that Paul Krugman was still writing academic papers. Nor have I seen any evidence in the last decade that he still has any sense of humor.
Consequently, I was surprised to see an article written by him entitled “The Theory of Interstellar Trade,” published recently in the journal Economic Inquiry.

10/12/10

A Great Example of How Anonymous Economists Are

Even Nobel Laureate economists suffer from lack of name recognition.

10/11/10

Congratulations to Peter Diamond on Winning the Nobel Prize in Economics

The first time I met Peter Diamond, nearly 20 years ago, I was a prospective student visiting MIT. He was wearing sandals without socks as he taught a graduate class. I remember thinking that was odd. As I sit here in my office, I am wearing sandals without socks. Perhaps Peter Diamond influenced me in ways I never imagined.
I was delighted to see that Peter Diamond shared the Nobel Prize today with two other economists (Mortensen and Pissarides, who I don’t know personally but are very highly respected).

10/11/10

Stumbling Toward a Market for Health Care in the U.K.

Many economists view the health-care bill passed in the U.S. earlier this year as falling somewhere between “a complete waste of time” and “actually making the situation worse.” Will the Conservative Party do better with health-care reform in the U.K.?

10/5/10

Will Freakonomics Help You Find True Love?

Probably not, but Malcolm Gladwell might.
My source for this conclusion: the always-interesting OKTrends blog, which provides data analysis for the OKCupid online dating site. Its latest analysis looks at how profile essays differ by race.

9/16/10

Bad News for Me on Two Fronts

A new meta-analysis looks at past research into whether a person’s performance on basic physical functions like walking speed or ease in getting out of a chair predicts death.

9/15/10

Probably Not the Way to Run a Restaurant

I happened to be driving by an A&W restaurant the other day. I also happened to be thirsty. So I stopped in to order a frosty mug of root beer.
“We’re out of root beer,” the worker told me.

9/14/10

iPhone Users Have More Sex

As widely reported in the press recently, analysis done by the online dating site OKCupid finds that iPhone users are more sexually active than those who have Blackberrys or Androids.

8/16/10

The Dung Beetle

As I’ve blogged about in the past, my father has earned great notoriety for his study of all things fecal.

8/12/10

The New-Car Mating Dance

Our minivan is ten years old, so we went out to buy a new one this weekend. In Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, we write a lot about how the Internet has changed markets in which there are information asymmetries. Buying a new car gave me the chance to see first-hand these forces at work in the new car market.

8/10/10

The Economics of Gypsies

Peter Leeson’s new research.

7/27/10

Thaler on Soccer

Regulating soccer and financial markets.

7/26/10
7/14/10

When Nurses Go on Strike

Patients die.

7/13/10
7/9/10

How Much the World Has Changed

Advertisements from days gone by.

7/8/10

A Freakonomics Contest: What Do You Say to a Celebrity?

What would you say if you met a celebrity?

7/8/10

The Economics of Spongeworthiness

A humorous paper by Avinash Dixit.

7/7/10

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