There is no Nobel Prize in criminology, so two years ago criminologists decided to do the next best thing — create a Stockholm Prize in Criminology. I was delighted to see that two friends have won this year’s award: Alfred Blumstein and Terrie Moffitt. Al Blumstein has done pathbreaking work for decades, including a lot of work on the link . . .
The Rockford Registar Star has a “Big Fish” feature: The Rockford Register Star launched the Big Fish list in 1982. Any person who catches a fish in freshwater on a hook and line – no nets – in the Register Star’s readership area can report the fish to the Register Star and receive a Big Fish button. Local residents who . . .
My mother has a weekly ritual that involves getting the Sunday New York Times and seeing where our book is in the rankings. She will be disappointed this week. No Freakonomics on the list for the first time since the book came out.
An article in Slate yesterday argued that TV watching causes autism. The Slate article is based on research done by Cornell economists Michael Waldman, Sean Nicholson, and Nodir Adilov. You can download the academic working paper here. The paper gives some theories why TV and autism might be linked, but the more interesting part of the paper is the data . . .
When my sister Linda came up with the idea to make Freakonomics t-shirts, the idea was to get Lindsay Lohan and Pam Anderson to wear them. So far this is the closest a Freakonomics t-shirt has gotten to a celebrity.
A few weeks back I blogged about possible convergence in the viewing habits of blacks and whites. Blog reader Devin Reams has done some further research. Devin writes: I saw the entry on Nielsen’s black and white households and viewers habits. I decided to do some “research” of my own. And by research I mean jumped on Facebook. If you . . .
Netflix is offering a $1 million prize. This sounds like something that a Freakonomics blog reader should try to win: Netflix is all about connecting people to the movies they love. To help customers find those movies, we’ve developed our world-class movie recommendation system: CinematchSM. Its job is to predict whether someone will enjoy a movie based on how much . . .
I’m often asked who thought up the name “Freakonomics.” The answer is my sister Linda. As soon as we set out to write a book, I knew she would be the one to name it. She is the most creative person I’ve ever met. When she isn’t thinking up book titles, her day job is running www.yarnzilla.com, an online and . . .
This is old news in the poker world (see here and here), but so curious that it seems worthy of mention. At this year’s main event of the World Series of Poker, there were 2 million dollars more in chips at the end of the tournament than there were at the start of the tournament. Where they came from is . . .
If you are as old as me and a sports fan, you will remember the “Rainbow Man.” In the 1980’s, you almost couldn’t watch a televised sporting event without seeing him. He wore a rainbow wig and held up a sign with a biblical reference, most often “John 3:16.” A friend of mine wants to pull off the Freakonomics version . . .
We mention in passing in Freakonomics that blacks and whites in the United States have very different TV viewing habits (see page 182 of the book). Monday Night Football is the only TV show that historically has been among the top ten in viewership for both blacks and whites. Seinfeld, one of the most popular white shows ever, was never . . .
I was in Las Vegas yesterday celebrating my 10 year anniversary with my wife Jeannette, who loves me but not nearly as much as she loves poker. So even though this blog is about my anniversary and about commitment, it is not about the sort of commitment you might suspect. Rather it is about what economists call a “commitment device,” . . .
I get a lot of interesting letters in the mail. (To those of you who send me things, I apologize that I so rarely respond. If you want to hear from me, your odds are better — but still not great — on email.) I got a package recently, however, that really stood out. It came from a Texas woman . . .
A few days ago I wrote a blog post in which I asked why there is so much fear about medical privacy. There were many comments on the post, but they mostly missed my point. So let me try again. Many people wrote about public humiliation. I understand why people wouldn’t want the size and location of their hemorrhoids published . . .
Some time ago Pete Rose signed a bunch of baseballs with the inscription “I’m sorry I bet on baseball.” According to media reports, he gave these balls to friends and never intended them to be sold for profit. But the estate of one of the collectors who received the ball decided to put 30 of them up for auction. There . . .
I think I am the only person in the world who genuinely loves Sky Mall — the catalog you find in the pouch in the seat in front of you when you fly on airplanes. I cannot go through Sky Mall without finding a dozen things I want. I once did an entire season of Christmas shopping from Sky Mall. . . .
I was talking with a doctor the other day and he raised an interesting question: why is there so much attention given to the privacy of hospital records? The laws about medical privacy place very strong restrictions and prohibitions on those data. On those occasions where someone loses a laptop with such information, everyone goes nuts. This doctor said that . . .
If you do a search for the words “game theory” on amazon.com , you find books by eminent economists like Roger Myerson, Fudenberg and Tirole, and our recent critic Ariel Rubinstein. But at the top of the list is a new album by the Philadelphia hip-hop band known as “The Roots”. Do The Roots have a soft spot in their . . .
I blogged a few months back about how ridiculous the rules are regarding the use of electronic equipment on airplanes. I often leave my iPod on, and sometimes (gasp!) my laptop, which I leave secretly running inside my briefcase. I am happy to report no problems so far. A flight attendant did something on my flight a few days ago . . .
Langston Walker is 6-foot-8 and 345 pounds. He majored in economics at Cal. He plays football now for the Oakland Raiders. He said this in a recent Sacramento Bee article: “I bring a book for the plane ride,” Walker said. “Something that’s educational, something that will expand my mind.” Such talk causes running back Justin Fargas to ask Walker, “Are . . .
It seems like not a week goes by without another prediction market being launched. This week’s entry: CasualObserver.net . Up and running just one week, it focuses on the U.S. midterm elections. The good news is that you can participate for free. The bad news is that if you want to win real money, you have to look elsewhere. (I . . .
Lindsay Davenport, former number 1 ranked female tennis player, talking about the new tournament format being introduced in professional tennis, via Reuters: The ATP, as part of sweeping changes aimed at making tournaments more attractive to fans, television, players and tournament directors, plans to play early rounds of tour events as round-robins to ensure that marquee players remain throughout the . . .
The “efficient market hypothesis” argues that markets quickly and correctly incorporate all publicly available information into prices. Under the strong version of this theory, the only reason prices of assets like stocks move is because new information becomes available. (The ideas underyling efficient markets are largely associated with the University of Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s.) Most economists these . . .
Of all the questions that readers of Freakonomics ask me to explore, understanding the explosion in autism is at or near the top of the list. I haven’t read the original study, but this news report offers an interesting hypothesis about the rise in autism: older fathers. Don’t tell Dubner I’m citing Wikipedia, but there is a nice entry there . . .
Seven years ago a Harvard undergrad named Ilyana Kuziemko emailed me asking if I had any summer research positions available. At the time, nobody ever sent me this kind of email, so I hired her and she spent the summer in Chicago doing research with me. It was clear then that she had a very special talent for economics. Consequently, . . .
The movie “Snakes on a Plane” had enormous internet buzz before being released , but fizzled at the box office. This has led to a great deal of discussion in both the traditional media and online about what does or does not make internet buzz translate into commercial success. One reasonable answer to that question may be that when the . . .
I’ve written in the past about how much I have enjoyed the TED conference held annually in Monterey, as well as the associated blog. Now, you can get a taste of TED without even leaving the house. At TedTalks, a handful of the presentations have been posted, including ones by Al Gore, Larry Brilliant, and Daniel Dennett (who is indirectly . . .
Forwarded to me by my good friend Sherman Shapiro, but originally published here in The Onion : WASHINGTON, DC – Congress is considering sweeping legislation, which provides new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislation by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition. . . .
Dubner recently posted about criminal names in England. The American parallel to that list is one maintained by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The Texas list has information about all 396 people currently on death row in that state. It includes first names, as well as details about their life and crimes in some instances. The most likely first . . .
The U of C economics Ph.D. program is hardly known as a place where dreams come true. It is a tough program that breaks the spirit of many who attempt it. Courtesy of Herbert Baum, here is the feel-good story of the year coming out of U of C economics. The story starts 60 years ago when Herbert Baum first . . .
You want to listen to Freakonomics Radio? That’s great! Most people use a podcast app on their smartphone. It’s free (with the purchase of a phone, of course). Looking for more guidance? We’ve got you covered.
Stay up-to-date on all our shows. We promise no spam.
