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‘Acting White’ Is Old School

Economist Roland Fryer has done research on “acting white,” i.e. the phenomenon by which black children who excel academically are stigmatized by their peers. Recently, he was in a New…




Do Street Names Matter?

In research with Roland Fryer, later written up in Freakonomics, we asked the question “Does the name you give your child matter for her life outcome?” (I say “her” because…






An Award Even Gary Becker Doesn’t Have

Hats off to economist Roland Fryer, Joel Klein, the rest of the folks in the New York City Department of Education, and Droga5 for taking home the Titanium Lion prize…



Bribing Kids to Try on Tests

…for the older students. It is remarkable how offended people get when you pay students for doing well – so many negative emails and comments. Roland Fryer endured the same…



Teacher Incentives Ineffective in New York

Roland Fryer continues to work with incentives in education — for students, parents, and teachers. His newest working paper (gated) describes an experiment in New York City that was unsuccessful…




A Creative NASCAR Incentive

…fear of being the guy who holds back the rest of the group is probably a stronger motivation than anything. The economist Roland Fryer tested this idea not long ago…



Why I Like Writing About Economists

…of these truths can be uncomfortable. After I wrote about Roland Fryer, he was assailed by fellow black scholars for having underplayed the degree to which racism afflicts black Americans….



Will There Be an “Acting Obama” Effect?

…some scholars (including Roland Fryer) have argued that one factor in the black-white education gap is the “acting white” phenomenon, in which some students, as Fryer and David Austen-Smith wrote:…



Episode 121

How Good Are Your Snap Judgments?

How much can you tell about someone from the first few seconds of a Zoom call? What did Stephen think of Angie when he first met her? And: a special…


Fresh Beer at Market Prices

Roland Fryer is a very enterprising young economist at Harvard whose early work, much of it in collaboration with Steve Levitt, is featured in Freakonomics. Roland’s creativity is not limited…




Episode 39

The Economist’s Guide to Parenting

Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the ROI on child-rearing.

Episode 107

Bringing Data to Life

Talithia Williams thinks you should rigorously track your body’s data. She and Steve Levitt trade birth stories and bemoan the state of STEM education….

Episode 94

The Price of Doing Business with John List

From baseball card conventions to Walmart, John List has always used field experiments to say revolutionary things about economics. He explains the value of an apology, why scaling shouldn’t be…

Episode 434

Is New York City Over?

The pandemic has hit America’s biggest city particularly hard. Amidst a deep fiscal hole, rising homicides, and a flight to the suburbs, some people think the city is heading back…

Episode 39

The Economist’s Guide to Parenting (Replay)

Think you know how much parents matter? Think again. Economists crunch the numbers to learn the ROI on child-rearing.

Oh to Be Young Again

…snag a little air time in the latest rundown of the new generation of economic talent. It is wonderful to see my friend and co-author Roland Fryer on the list…



Winner, Loser, and Marijuana Pepsi

…findings of my academic research with Roland Fryer, which found no impact of a child’s name on her life. Now, from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, we have the story of three…



The Freakonomics Q&A: Part One

…be too difficult. Some of my academic research with Roland Fryer has made clear to me the stark choices that black teens, especially boys, have to make about “who they…




New evidence on racial test score gaps

…Substantial racial test score gaps are found as early as age five. Roland Fryer and I have written two papers on racial differences in test scores in the past (see…



Out of Touch in California

…us on only because we know Roland Fryer — and then a pair of lectures, first at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica and then at the legendary (so we…



Race in America

…in America on the back page of the magazine called “Pick One” written by David Matthews. My friend and co-author Roland Fryer continues to think hard about these issues also….



Don’t Remind Criminals They Are Criminals

…should be bad at math. I’ve always been skeptical of these results (and indeed failed to replicate them in one study I did with Roland Fryer and John List) because…