Dogs for Everyone?
New research shows that, in addition to being man’s best friend, dogs improve productivity in the office.
New research shows that, in addition to being man’s best friend, dogs improve productivity in the office.
How much does school choice matter? Probably less than you think, as Levitt has previously argued. Now, in an analysis of seven years of test-score data from 6,000 Los Angeles teachers, the L.A. Times and the Rand Corp. have found teacher effectiveness to be three times more influential than school attendance on student performance.
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.
This week we’re offering up “Ian Horsley.” By day, he is employed in the anti-fraud department of a large British bank; but in his every spare moment for the past few years he has been working hard in collaboration with Steve Levitt to build an algorithm that can identify potential terrorists by their retail banking data.
Here’s one way to fight obesity: mandatory exercise, as Beijing has commanded again, after a three-year break.
Google Earth isn’t just for kicks anymore: FP reports that governments around the world are using the service to catch everyone from tax evaders to marijuana growers.
The altruism of yacht-buyers towards shipyard workers has now been surpassed by those arguing for an extension of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 for the very well-to-do (family income above $250,000, probably the top 2 percent of taxpayers), scheduled to expire on December 31. A recent objection is that, by reducing net incomes of the rich, failing to extend this tax cut would reduce job creation, placing a burden on working-class families.
The game of golf has in many ways retained its down-to-earth origins. So what happens when a gaggle of statisticians and mathematical theorists bearing GPS and laser surveyors descend on the links?
We are a bit late in passing on the news, but the trailer for the forthcoming Freakonomics film has been released.
Brett Arends at the Wall Street Journal calculates the cost of a backyard pool and advises prospective pool-owners to tread carefully.
Are e-mail attachments bad for the environment? Data-storage expert Matthew Yeager thinks so.
Each week, I’ve been inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent research. Here is the latest round.
As I’ve blogged about in the past, my father has earned great notoriety for his study of all things fecal.
Besieged on campus by amorous female students, University of Alabama economics professor Gary A. Hoover relocated to a home 45 miles away.
Car theft is a man’s world, according to a new paper by Christopher W. Mullins and Michael G. Cherbonneau. Car thieves face two big tasks: stealing the car and selling it. Both male and female thieves are “mentored” by more experienced thieves in much the same way; however, men have an advantage when it’s time to sell the stolen goods.
My friend was just telling me about a recent dream in which she was naked at a party and it reminded me of my similar dreams of being naked at school. It’s such a common trope in American culture that it made me wonder if people in other cultures have it too. Do more open/less prudish cultures like maybe Brazil have it as a common dream? What about much more conservative cultures, like in the Middle East — do they have a much more reserved version of it?
Wolfram Alpha has just launched a free Widget Builder that lets you easily create widgets to calculate all kinds of things – seamlessly integrating data from the Alpha server.
What kid doesn’t hate it when Mom makes them put on a sweater? Apparently, Anglo-American children hate it so much that they perform worse on any task they believe was chosen for them by their mothers.
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.
A few years ago, I hurried to catch a Berlin subway and forgot to buy the $2.10 ticket. Usually nobody checks tickets, although every once in awhile checkers pass through the subway-which they did on that trip! I paid an instant cash fine of $40 and was completely embarrassed and chagrined.
Bill Barnwell of Football Outsiders is here to answer any football questions you might like to throw at him.
An East Baltimore citizen suggests a freaky explanation for recent violence in the city.
Obesity continues to plague the U.S., with nine states now reporting that more than 30% of their population is obese.
There’s a particular kind of story one reads occasionally, making fun of the worst excesses of political correctness. But this entry is about the other extreme-a toy manufacturer so far in the dark ages that even Don Draper might snicker.
Anxious investors can take heart: Congress’s August recess begins at the end of this week, which has historically been a good thing for the markets. Michael Ferguson and Hugh Douglas Witte found that “about 90% of the capital gains over the life of the Dow Jones Industrial Average have come on days when Congress is out of session.”
I expect to have a conversation with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, in the next couple of days. He’s a very smart and talkative fellow, and I suspect he would fit into a Freakonomics Radio podcast very well.
Bad news: with all due respect to Terrafugia, unless you’re a fan of Futurama it’s probably going to be awhile before you see a flying car. But cars that drive themselves are coming, probably within most of our lifetimes and possibly sooner than you might think. They will drastically cut traffic congestion, improve safety, and be a terrific boon to those like the young and the old who are deprived of mobility. The ability to take our hands off the wheel will also undoubtedly send sales of Big Macs and mascara skyrocketing. But do we have the drive to make robot cars a reality?
Marketplace reports that an effort in Chicago to turn human waste into fertilizer has run into local opposition due to higher-than-expected costs.
From Dan Okrent’s recent Q&A about Prohibition: “No factor played a larger role in the repeal of Prohibition than the government’s desperate need for revenue as the country fell into the grip of the Depression.” In short: governments who hate vice suddenly hate it much less when cash flow is slow. And we are seeing that again today.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources on July 28th ran what may be the first-ever online reverse auction for energy efficiency grants. The state allocated $3 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding in a series of three one-hour auctions by having 23 pre-qualified businesses bid on a $/kWh saved basis for projects that were expected to enhance energy efficiency. Grants with fixed dollar amounts were awarded to the bidders who promised the best (conservation) bang for the (grant) buck.