When Freakonomics.com was launched in 2005, it was essentially a blog (c’mon, blogs were a thing then!). The first Freakonomics book had just been published, and Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt wanted to continue their conversation with readers. Over time, the blog grew to have millions of readers, a variety of regular and guest writers, and it was hosted by The New York Times, where Dubner and Levitt also published a monthly “Freakonomics” column. The authors later collected some of the best blog writing in a book called When to Rob a Bank … and 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants. (The publisher rejected their original title: We Were Only Trying to Help. The publisher had also rejected the title Freakonomics at first, so they weren’t surprised.) While the blog has not had any new writing in quite some time, the entire archive is still here for you to read.
We’ve written before about pay-as-you-wish commerce, most significantly the case of a bagel man in the Washington, D.C., area, but also a coffee shop in Seattle and three instances of pay-as-you-wish download-able music: Radiohead, Jane Siberry, and SongSlide. Now here’s another baked-goods pay-as-you-wish scheme that’s worth looking at, concerning a bakery in Kitchener, Ontario, called City Cafe Bakery. Below is . . .
How’s this for a commitment device? Alexandra Von Feldmann‘s sculpture, the “Birth Clock” is a timepiece frozen in a glass bubble. The moment you break the glass, the clock springs to life, marking progress. Or, you can leave the glass intact as a reminder of your unwillingness to commit. Dubner and Levitt have written about commitment devices before, including replica . . .
Michael Pollan recently wrote a provocative and thoughtful essay called “Why Bother?” in The Times Magazine about whether it’s worth it to make individual behavior changes to fight climate change. There were a lot of pieces of the essay that Freakonomics readers would find of interest, and perhaps would quarrel with. Here is a particularly compelling section about Wendell Berry‘s . . .
Almost: … like seeing the Pope: texting him. … all commercial U.S. flights have no air marshals on board. … a German officer came that close to assassinating Hitler. … how far Rolls Royce Q1 orders were from $15 billion. … how close the human race might have come to splitting in two.
One of the real barriers to widespread adoption of prediction markets by U.S. corporations has been a murky legal environment. Are prediction markets legitimate business tools, an alternative set of securities markets requiring SEC regulation, illegal betting markets, allowable games of skill, or something else altogether? Fortunately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is stepping up to the plate, and I’m . . .
In our Times column published last Sunday, we wrote about how Mike Zarren of the Boston Celtics organization uses statistical analysis to help with personnel and strategic decisions. Here’s one paragraph toward the end: Zarren is also responsible for the Celtics’ basketball-related technology and uses a service that delivers video footage tagged with statistical information. With just a few mouse . . .
The E.P.A. has proposed new rules that would drastically reduce the permissible level of lead in air pollution. If the change goes into effect, it will mark the first time lead emissions standards have been tightened since the agency went after leaded gasoline in the 1970’s. If lead contributed to the crime falloff of the 1990’s, are we looking at . . .
The other day, I received an e-mail that I shouldn’t have. While my name was indeed in the list of addressees, and while I knew some of the other addressees (as well as the sender), my name was plainly included by mistake. It took me about three seconds to figure this out, since the topic under discussion had nothing to . . .
A recent FREAK Shot sparked a series of photo submissions and comments about the best way for a sign to get people to do what it’s asking. In this video, Wired contributing editor Daniel Pink claims the most effective signs appeal to people’s empathies and don’t just give a command. (HT: Ross) He recommends, for example, preempting “Pick up after . . .
Price discrimination — charging different prices for the same product or service — requires preventing people who pay a high price for an item from being able to buy it at a low price. This is done by separating the markets — linking the price to different times when the item is bought, such as day or night, weekday or . . .
The Chinese think they can keep it from raining on the National Stadium during the Olympics. The Chinese Weather Modification Office employs nearly 53,000 people — it would have been simpler to just build the stadium with a roof. But mandating that the Chinese people cease and desist may prove an easier task for the Chinese government than telling Mother . . .
Here’s the most recent guest bleg from Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations. In recent weeks I have blegged for information about the origins of famous computer sayings, including proverbs such as “Garbage in, garbage out,” and, “Information wants to be free.” Computer culture seems to be a rich source of new proverbs such as these. For . . .
Jessica‘s earlier posts can be found here, her own blog here, and her recent book here.
We recently solicited your questions for primatologist Frans de Waal. Of all his accomplishments, one of the greatest has been his ability to so well communicate his scholarly findings to a wide audience. Here is one compelling piece of advice he offered on that subject: “Keep the reader interested, whatever it takes, so long as you don’t violate the truth.” . . .
Yesterday, Democrats voted in Indiana and North Carolina. My latest W.S.J. column parses the results. A few highlights: With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton trading victories in North Carolina and Indiana, it’s tempting to call Tuesday’s primary vote a split decision. Instead, political prediction markets have declared Senator Obama a clear winner. Senator Obama began Election Day rated a 76 . . .
Robert Jensen Over the last two days, Robert Jensen has described his hunt for the ever-elusive Giffen good. Like all action adventure stories, this one has a happy ending. Jensen then goes on to explain the important implications of his findings for food policy in the developing world. Raiders of the Lost Arc Elasticity, Part III By Robert Jensen What . . .
Tourists love Bali for its picturesque rice paddy views. But they also love it for a more modern attraction that’s threatening Asia’s food security and replacing paddys in countries throughout Asia — golf courses. Reuters reports that surging Asian economies, rising living standards, and a younger generation that prefers less labor-intensive resort and golf course employment have hurt Asian rice . . .
In my last post I showed the large happiness differences between religious Americans and secularists, and argued that this is a big part of the reason conservatives are so much happier than liberals. But I also noted that religion and other lifestyle distinctions still only explain about half the gap. In this post, I’ll look at the role of divergent . . .
Public-health officials in northern California are worried that foreclosed and abandoned homes — at least the ones with swimming pools — might become a breeding ground for mosquitoes that could carry West Nile virus. From a Mercury News article: Worried health officials will embark today on an aerial search for backyard, watery havens for mosquitoes that potentially carry the deadly . . .
Robert Jensen In the second installment of his adventure story about searching for the elusive Giffen good, Robert Jensen describes some of the setbacks they suffered along the way. Raiders of the Lost Arc Elasticity, Part II By Robert Jensen Let me start at the beginning to explain how our search for a Giffen good evolved. About five years ago, . . .
Parkside Market in Astoria, New York. The neighborhood grocery store is becoming an endangered species in many parts of the country, from New York to Seattle. Now, U.C.L.A. researchers have uncovered a link between the grocery gap and rising obesity, the Los Angeles Times reports. The study found that neighborhoods with dramatically more fast-food restaurants and convenience stores than supermarkets . . .
I’m struck to find that we pointy-headed economists have become a symbol in the presidential campaign. No, not evil trickle-down, right-wing economists who manufacture an uncaring government, or lunatic left-wing, regulate-em-all central planners who want to destroy innovation — but all economists. Last week I issued a challenge to find a coherent economist who would support the gas tax holiday . . .
Ebonya Washington, an economist at Yale, has a great paper that was just published in the American Economic Review called “Female Socialization: How Daughters Affect Their Legislator Fathers’ Voting on Women’s Issues.” She looks at members in the House of Representatives and looks to see whether their voting patterns change. She provides interesting evidence that, “conditional on total number of . . .
A recent article notes that attendance in Major League Baseball parks is actually above last year, despite, so the story says, the economic downturn (recession?). But despite is incorrect — it should be “because” of the economic downturn. The story notes that cheap seats at the Dodgers Stadium go for $8 to $13. Not bad for three plus hours of . . .
A few years back the Wall Street Journal dubbed me the Indiana Jones of economics. Robert Jensen In reality, that title more rightfully belongs to Robert Jensen, an economist at Brown University who is doing some of the most interesting and adventurous economics studies these days. Jensen has documented how cell phones revolutionized fish markets in India, how simply telling . . .
Last week I posed a simple challenge: Try to find any coherent economist willing to support the gas tax holiday proposed by candidates McCain and Clinton. The challenge remains unanswered, but here’s some interesting commentary collected during the week: 1. George Stephanopoulos posed my challenge directly to Senator Clinton (video here), asking: “Can you name one economist — a credible . . .
Levitt and I have a column in this Sunday’s Times Magazine about the attempt to bring to the sport of basketball the intense statistical analysis that Bill James has made popular throughout baseball. The column centers on the Boston Celtics, who have just completed the best-ever turnaround in N.B.A. history, winning 66 games this year after winning just 24 last . . .
Judging from this sign (and its unsettling verbiage), Gray’s Papaya isn’t counting on the tax rebates. So it’s offering its own version of economic relief: Photo: Jay Jones A cafe in Venice is doing something similar for subprime victims. Any other instances of recession discounts? Addendum: Apparently Gray’s Papaya has been offering their discount for a few years — pessimism . . .
Following my recent musings about the tax rebate checks, several people asked about the likely economic consequences of this sort of policy. My friend and colleague, Nick Souleles, is one of the leading experts on these matters, so I asked him for a short primer on what we learned from when rebate checks were sent out in 2001. Here is . . .
Frans de Waal is one of the world’s most prominent primatologists, known especially for having drawn parallels between the behavior of humans and non-human primates — from peacemaking to morality to culture. His first book, Chimpanzee Politics, compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimps with the behavior of human politicians. (Newt Gingrich, who was then speaker of the House, recommended . . .
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