Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum
…team at Michigan State University has examined the use of Facebook by undergraduate students. Charles Steinfield, Cliff Lampe, and I have used surveys, interviews, and automated capture of the MSU…
Economists have a hard time explaining why productivity growth has been shrinking. One theory: true innovation has gotten much harder – and much more expensive. So what should we do…
Billionaire John Arnold is figuring out how to do as much good as he can with his wealth. It takes hard work, risk tolerance, and a lot of spending.
Also: is obsessing over your mental health bad for your mental health?…
…team at Michigan State University has examined the use of Facebook by undergraduate students. Charles Steinfield, Cliff Lampe, and I have used surveys, interviews, and automated capture of the MSU…
Heeding the warnings of public health officer Charity Dean about Covid-19 could have saved lives. Charity explains why she loves infectious diseases and why she moved to the private sector….
…part of Denmark — meaning that it is an expensive hobby for the Danish tax payers. Greenlanders dream of being independent from Denmark, but those hopes are pinned on having…
…Teacher’s Guide, Student’s Guide, Test Answers and Test Questions.) The Guides were commissioned by HarperAcademic and seem to be very well done. Click here for all the information you need….
…I was in China. In Beijing, it seemed like our tour guide was perhaps a little corrupt. For example, we attended an acrobatic show one night. Included in the tour…
Celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli joins us to co-host an evening of delicious fact-finding: where a trillion oysters went, whether a soda tax can work, and how beer helped build an…
…The Economics of Org Culture CHAPTER 8: Disaster and Change Conclusion: The Future Org This post is no longer accepting comments. The answers to the Q&A can be found here….
The creator of The Wire, The Deuce, and other shows is leading the Writers Guild on the picket lines. He and Steve break down the economics of TV writing, how…
…hackoff.com, takes his company public and watches its stock price soar and collapse. Following a hostile takeover attempt, Lazard is found dead in his office of what appears to be…
I’m nearly certain that a pair of students cheated on my final exam—the probability they had so many identical answers on the multiple-choice exam is infinitesimal. If I pursue them,…
A woman comes to the emergency room with back pain. She’ll leave with an unexpected diagnosis. How does her doctor figure out what’s wrong? Listen as host Bapu Jena puts…
I was pondering why many of my undergraduate students performed so poorly on my recent final exam when this video and a second one came across my desk. Perhaps my…
…the lyrics carefully, though, you will see that the singer/songwriter probably should have spent more time studying for the exam and less time writing this great song…the economics concepts described…
…teaches business and government at Syracuse and is the recent author of Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism; Tyler Cowen, best known in these parts as a…
…it is a flat income tax. (See the school’s tuition table [in German].) Have fun trying the taxonomy on your favorite taxes and charges! Years ago on a final exam…
Are you a problem solver or an opportunity seeker? Why is it so hard to find a good leader these days? And could you be Angela’s next boss?…
…achievement. I have my own example: Mrs. Ficalora, the best third-grade teacher ever. In 1968, as a third-grade student at P.S. 13—a neighborhood public elementary school in Queens, New York—I…
…a great deal of my job today — both in Washington and around the world — involves linking arms with other major intellectual property industries (computer software, music, and beyond)…
Cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death globally. What if it doesn’t have to be that way? Bapu Jena walks us through some solutions that can help…
…for the tax write-off? Should we think less of people who do volunteer work to pad their resumes? And why is Angela stopping women in public parks to compliment them?…
Nobel Prize winner Joshua Angrist explains how the draft lottery, the Talmud, and West Point let economists ask — and answer — tough questions….
Only a tiny number of “supertaskers” are capable of doing two things at once. The rest of us are just making ourselves miserable, and less productive. How can we put…
…it’s harder to back down. Q: How do you think your rising popularity will translate to actual professional successes? A: It depends on what you mean by “professional success.” The…
Daniel Ek, a 23-year-old Swede who grew up on pirated music, made the record labels an offer they couldn’t refuse: a legal platform to stream all the world’s music. Spotify…
