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Freakonomics Blog

Are Women Being Taken for a Ride?

According to sociologist Pepper Schwartz they are — as car passengers. Schwartz reports that even in households that consider themselves feminist, men are far more likely to take the keys when the couple rides together. Does the evidence back her up?
I’ve been working with the American Time Use Survey, a great data set collected by the Department of Labor. The ATUS is chock-full of fun facts; for example, American adults report spending more than two- and-one-third times more time at gambling establishments than at museums.


What If They'd Said Yes?

Unredacted, the National Security Archive’s blog, has posted Lee Harvey Oswald’s request to the Soviet Union for citizenship. “I want citizenship,” Oswald wrote, “because I am a communist and a worker; I have lived in a decadent capitalist society where the workers are slaves.”


Cold, Hard Cash as a Handwashing Incentive

Whenever you write a book, it’s interesting to see which parts of it people respond to en masse. With SuperFreakonomics, the global-warming chapter has certainly gotten its fair share of attention, and Levitt noted a lot of feedback about the perils of drunk walking.


Quantifying Teacher Effectiveness

Teach for American (TFA) is known for putting recent college graduates in low-income public schools for two-year teaching stints, a mission that has produced a lot of passionate debate. The organization’s founders hope that these young teachers will eventually become education leaders and advocates – and many of them have.


If It's Raining, You Might Want to Reschedule That Interview

It is no secret that weather affects mood, and even behavior. The Bagel Man we wrote about in Freakonomics, who ran an honor-system business, received lower payments during foul weather. Now along come Donald Redelmeier and Simon D. Baxter from the University of Toronto with an interesting question: do applicants to medical school suffer if they happen to be interviewed on a rainy day?


A Chinese Spit Crackdown

As the Associated Press reports, the Chinese city of Guangzhou has introduced a strong incentive to discourage spitting in public: residents lose their homes if they get caught spitting seven times within a two-year period.


What Are Economists Talking About?

O.K., this is a pretty crude analysis. But still, this year’s conference suggests to me that the economics profession is healing itself.


What's Next: A Do-Not-Knock Registry?

John List had better be careful. His research is very valuable to the philanthropic community; but if this latest paper engenders a public outcry for a “do-not-knock” registry, he might quickly become a pariah.


My Grandfather Before Computers

My siblings, cousins, and I were talking about our paternal grandfather recently. He was very bright, but uneducated (immigrated to the U.S. at age 10). He worked in the garment industry, his best job being as a cutter — figuring out how to waste the least amount of cloth in creating a garment.


China's City of the Future

Al Jazeera reports on one of the projects driving China’s magical 8 percent GDP growth. Ordos is a modern, luxurious “city of the future” in Inner Mongolia, built entirely over the last five years with government funds. It’s also a ghost town with almost no residents or businesses.


LED Astray

LED traffic lights may be the wave of the future. But do they have some unintended negative consequences?


Yes We Can? Paul Volcker's Not So Sure

Charlie Rose interviews Paul Volcker, longtime former chairman of the Federal Reserve and currently the chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Volcker talks bluntly about fixing the broken financial system, compensation on Wall Street, the future of the American economy, and the Obama administration’s performance so far. Volcker is particularly pessimistic about getting things done in Washington: “The American political process is about as broken as the financial system.” [%comments]


R.O.I. on Cancer Spending: Better Than We Think?

It is commonly thought that the nearly-40-year “war on cancer” has largely been a failure, since the age-adjusted mortality rate for cancer is essentially unchanged over that time. But that’s a deceptive metric. Consider this…


Engineers Among the Terrorists

A study by sociologists Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog reveals that engineers are “three times more likely to become violent terrorists than their peers in finance, medicine, or the sciences,” as reported in Slate. So why the career change?


The "Sole Purpose" of SuperFreakonomics

Here is a multiple choice question for you.
Read the following passage, taken from SuperFreakonomics:
If you know someone in southeastern Uganda who is having a baby next year, you should hope with all your heart that the baby isn’t born in May. If so, it will be roughly 20 percent more likely to have visual, hearing, or learning disabilities as an adult.


Are Economists Cheap? Or Do We Just Believe in Comparative Advantage?

The front page of Saturday’s Wall Street Journal tells us that “Economists are cheapskates.” The article by Justin Lahart is hilarious, recounting the foibles of those of us who sometimes take our classroom lessons about economizing a step too far – particularly when it comes to economizing on time.


Decision-Making Master Ralph Keeney Answers Your Questions

We recently solicited your questions for Ralph Keeney, a decision analyst at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
In his answers, you’ll find that Keeney discusses how to avoid making the wrong decisions, how to figure out what you really want, and why neither psychologists nor economists have definitively figured out how to make good decisions.


Why I Love Scientists

Two articles in Harvard magazine remind me why I am so optimistic about scientific breakthroughs making the world a better place.


In Defense of GDP

My recent Marketplace commentary focused on the recent Sarkozy Commission report, which re-examined the usefulness of the usual economic indicators, like Gross Domestic Product (or GDP).
The report raises many of the usual shortcomings of GDP. And I agree with each of their criticisms. Much of this was summarized 40 years ago, in a famous Bobby Kennedy speech:


The Checklist Manifesto

If there is one topic that I have no natural affinity for, it is checklists. I don’t use checklists. I’m not interested in checklists.
Yet, against all odds, I read Atul Gawande’s new book about checklists, The Checklist Manifesto in one sitting yesterday, which is an amazing tribute to the book that Gawande has crafted. Not only is the book loaded with fascinated stories, but it honestly changed the way I think about the world. It is the best book I’ve read in ages.


From Cap and Trade to Carbon Farming

There’s really no need to panic over the prospect of EPA dominance. Instead, industry should take the hint that’s it high time to push hard for climate-change legislation. Sure, the move by the EPA to exercise regulatory authority over carbon — a power granted to it by a 2007 Supreme Court ruling — was designed to give President Obama moral leverage in Denmark. But it also serves as a presidential prod to Congress to pass a climate-change law. No matter how you feel about global warming, greenhouse-gas emissions are not going to go unregulated. I suspect Obama ultimately nudged the EPA because he wants the U.S. Congress to do the regulating. Industry should support him on this.


The Fundamental Forces of Supply and Demand

I’ve been waiting for a news story to come along to give me the excuse to post my favorite economics photo of the year. Now that the year is over, I figure I’ll just post it.
This photo illustrates the two most important forces in my life.


End-of-the-Year Altruists

Yes, today is December 31. So get off this site and go find someplace to exercise your altruism, as impure as it may be.


How Not to Keep a Resolution

Before you commit to those New Year’s resolutions, you might want to read Jonah Lehrer’s recent article on the limitations of willpower.


Popcorn Charity

A movie theater in Santa Monica, California, advertises that it will give you a free box of popcorn if you donate $2 to charity.
The usual gimmick at movies is that the profits from sale of popcorn and other refreshments go to some charity.


Men or Women: Who Travel More?

Typically, I run my stuff past a few test readers to see if it will meet the lofty standards of Freakworthiness. Reactions were mixed on my plan to do a series on gender and travel (see the first installments here). Some thought it was bound to be a bore because, duh, of course men’s and women’s travel patterns are going to be very different. Others thought it was bound to be a bore because, duh, of course in this day and age men’s and women’s travel patterns are going to be very similar. There was widespread sentiment that I’m going to bore you – but who was right about why?