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.
I sat next to someone fairly famous yesterday on a long flight. He wasn’t at all talkative. Also, I think he had a cold. He read for a while, snoozed for a while, and watched a DVD on his Macbook. Disembarking, he put on a long cashmere coat. He also had a mustache. Who was he? The first person to . . .
Jessica Hagy has been entertaining us on her own blog and this one. Now, her book (named, appropriately, Indexed) is available for purchase. On the front cover, there’s the following blurb from Dubner (which probably doesn’t matter, but we’re quoting it anyway): With just a few circles, arrows, and tart words, Jessica Hagy makes more sense of the human condition . . .
It is devilishly hard to lose weight. A randomized control year-long study looked at the impact of four different diets (Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets) on a group of overweight and obese subjects who were looking to lose weight. The diets produced only “modest” average weight loss of about 6.4 lbs (2.3 percent of original body weight) and . . .
Still skeptical (even after evidence like this) about Levitt and Dubner’s conclusion in Freakonomics that having a real estate agent sell your home won’t necessarily result in a higher sale price? Stanford economist B. Douglas Bernheim and Stanford grad student Jonathan Meer provide further evidence in their working paper, “How Much Value Do Real Estate Brokers Add? A Case Study.” . . .
Is use v. non-use of social networking sites leading to “digital inequality”? (Earlier) Study finds crowds can be influenced by 5% minority. Incarceration rates for crack-cocaine users on the rise. (Earlier) Biofuels expert named among the “fastest growing” jobs of 2008. (Earlier)
There is no shortage of groups made up of citizens banding together for a cause: Greenpeace, Doctors without Borders, Save the Children, the KKK, etc. I suspect that if you look at the data, you will see that economists are nearly always underrepresented in these organizations. No doubt there are many factors contributing to this result. In general, economists tend . . .
Last week, we solicited your questions for Google chief economist Hal Varian. Here are his answers. Thanks to Hal for his generosity and to all of you for the good questions. Q: Google’s recent announcement that it will be investing in energy research suggests that management now thinks it can earn better returns from investing in fields other than its . . .
MediaPost reports that nearly 70 percent of online shoppers read at least 4 reviews of a product before purchasing it, while almost a quarter of people check eight reviews or more — good news for anyone who writes all those Amazon reviews. Still, this statistic begs the question: do online shoppers necessarily read more reviews than offline shoppers?
Prenatal lead exposure linked to male obesity. (Earlier) Researchers test Iraqi teenagers’ self-esteem. Cities in Japan, Sardinia, California boast the world’s longest-living populations. Helvetica makes list of “Top Ten new releases to inspire social change.” (Earlier)
A few weeks ago, we solicited your questions for Dubner and Levitt. The high quality and enthusiasm of your response gave us the idea to make the Freakonomics Q&A an ongoing feature. So starting today, the Levitt/Dubner Q&A will run regularly, and will be based on your first set of questions as well as any new questions that you leave . . .
Sudhir Venkatesh, Columbia sociologist and author of “Gang Leader for a Day,” is back once again for a seventh report after watching “The Wire” with a group of gangland acquaintances. His past reports can be found here. The Thugs were bored. Episode 7 failed to move them. “Too slow,” griped Shine. “They’re making us wait,” said Orlando. “See, that’s when . . .
A breakdown of current inflation psychology. VP of biofuels company to chat online about ethanol production. (Earlier) The link between women’s hairstyles and the Japanese economy. Tech pioneer predicts human-robot marriages to happen in the next 50 years.
That was the question I found myself asking while reading through the Times sports section in recent days. I understand that we are sort of between seasons here. The Super Bowl is over, baseball has yet to begin, the N.B.A. is slogging through its long wintry slog, and the N.H.L. — well, I’m afraid I just don’t pay attention, as . . .
We’ve written quite a bit about online identity theft here at Freakonomics. But there’s another form of crime that’s been spreading through the Internet over the past few years: click fraud. As its name suggests, the crime involves clicking on a Web site’s ads repeatedly (or, in some cases, employing a software program to do it) in order to pad . . .
It’s identity theft meets Internet dating: the Wall Street Journal reports that would-be online suitors are lifting other people’s profiles and posting them as their own. For example, Thierry Khalfa, a 44-year-old Frenchman, found himself dumped by Marjorie Coon, 48, after she discovered that he had copied exactly the profile of Mike Matteo, a 47-year-old screenwriter in Tampa, Fla. After . . .
Online music sales to pass CD sales by 2012. (Earlier) Scammers take advantage of “death bonds.” Music found to aid recovery for stroke victims. Are identical twins really genetically identical?
We ran a contest recently asking you to come up with a new six-word motto for the U.S. Your response was quite strong, with more than 1,200 replies to date. Anyone looking for a good snapshot of public sentiment during this most interesting election year would do well to scroll through the comments: they are pretty damn illuminating, and not . . .
Few people outside of academic economists have ever heard of the National Bureau of Economic Research (N.B.E.R.). Within the profession, however, it plays an enormously important role as an information clearinghouse. Through a series of well-attended conferences and the ubiquitous, yellow-jacketed N.B.E.R. Working Paper series (which, by my estimates, may contain more than 13,000 papers by now), the N.B.E.R. serves . . .
Mayor Ken Livingstone of London is urging his citizens to forego bottled water in light of the drag it puts on the environment. Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York has done the same. Others, meanwhile, have taken the further step of an outright ban on bottled water. Your thoughts?
Ian Ayres‘s recent book, Super Crunchers, contains an interesting description of the secret to the success of Netflix (a company that’s been discussed before on this blog). According to Ayres, Netflix’s movie recommendation algorithms are so good that they know my taste in movies better than I do. It is a source of wonderment to me just how well they . . .
Go and read this profile of the artist/author/songwriter Sandra Boynton. Not only is it nicely written (by Phyllis Korkki — great last name, BTW, with 50 percent Ks) but it is also a fascinating business story about how Boynton juggles and, more importantly, measures such variables as time, enjoyment, money, creative thrill, etc. The article is full of surprises — . . .
Can big businesses lead us to a cultural revolution? Does the human “inactivity bias” make economic sense? (Earlier) Michael Shermer discusses The Mind of the Market. (Earlier) A guide to betting on the Oscars.
Given our fondness for all things publishing here at Freakonomics, we’ve been following the development of e-books with particular interest. In the past few weeks, it appears that the free e-book movement has officially begun. Last week, publishing monolith HarperCollins (the publisher of Freakonomics) announced that it would offer free electronic editions of a group of its books on the . . .
MySpace is to Facebook as Yahoo! is to ___________. The answer, according to Hitwise, is: Google. Just as Facebook users are higher on the socioeconomic ladder than MySpace users, people who use Google as their search engine are better off than those who use Yahoo!. Google is most popular among users defined as “Affluent Suburbia,” “Upscale America,” and “Small Town . . .
N.I.H. and the E.P.A. to collaborate on testing chemicals for toxic effects. (Earlier) The 10 most fuel-efficient luxury cars. (Earlier) A guide to optimizing caffeine consumption. “Plagiarius Award” developed for the best product knockoffs of the year.
Justin Wolfers‘s recent post on “sounding presidential” reminded me that there is another sense in which a candidate might sound presidential. It turns out that almost all presidents have had first names with stressed first syllables – think WILL-iam, or RICH-ard. One-syllable names are also stressed when you say the candidate’s entire name – think BILL CLIN-ton or GEORGE BUSH. . . .
Last week, Justin Wolfers offered an insightful analysis of Roger Clemens‘s career statistics and what those statistics imply about the likelihood that Clemens used steroids. The latest contribution to this debate is by sabermetric legend Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus. Using only data through 1997, Nate generates a projection of what Clemens‘s stats should have looked like from 1998-2001, the . . .
Obesity linked to higher cancer risks. (Earlier) The Wii continues to dominate the industry. (Earlier) Is human sexuality an “evolutionary arms race”? How should corporations approach philanthropy? Becker and Posner speak. (Earlier)
… because today the Science journal published a short commentary [subscription required] written by myself and John List, on the topic of behavioral economics. Our piece begins like this: The discipline of economics is built on the shoulders of the mythical species Homo economicus. Unlike his uncle, Homo sapiens, H. economicus is unswervingly rational, completely selfish, and can effortlessly solve . . .
Two little words — “social networking” — have become a giant buzzphrase over the past couple of years, what with the worldwide march of Facebook and headline-ready stories about Web-assisted suicides. So what’s the net effect of social networking? We gathered a group of wise people who spend their days thinking about this issue — Martin Baily, Danah Boyd, Steve . . .
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