When Richard Thaler published Nudge in 2008 with co-author Cass Sunstein, the world was just starting to believe in his brand of behavioral economics. How did nudge theory hold up…
…problem with raising CAFE today? There is a long history of debate on whether “command and control” regulations (like raising CAFE standards) are a good way to bring about change….
He’s a Harvard physician and economist who just started a third job: host of the new podcast Freakonomics, M.D. He’s also Steve’s former student. The two discuss why medicine should…
The British art superstar Flora Yukhnovich, the Freakonomist Steve Levitt, and the upstart American Basketball Association were all unafraid to follow their joy — despite sneers from the Establishment. Should…
…work). So let’s help him out: please use the comments section to brainstorm the best way to set up the program he’s thinking about, replete with potential pitfalls. Bonus points…
A lot of full-time jobs in the modern economy simply don’t pay a living wage. And even those jobs may be obliterated by new technologies. What’s to be done so…
…for the state to coordinate investment by individual residents in larger, community-based solar installations that could be situated in the sunniest cities—perhaps on rooftops of public or commercial buildings or…
…most important activities the vacation is intended to facilitate are impossible to undertake, or are undertaken in a most unsatisfactory way. Getting to and from the site or sites of…
…in this “industry,” while his competitors haven’t. If that is so, I would expect some consolidation among his competitors as they understand the shape of long-run average costs. (HT: KY)…
…guide and translator Shayak (whom I will write much more about soon), tells me that every few months people from the railroad company come by and take the garbage away…
…street, the dads I share a knowing glance with, and all the good that will come from whatever lies ahead for my baby. I’m a committed neoclassical economist. I learned…
It can be found here under “Editorial Reviews.” In case you don’t feel like clicking through: In one of the many wonderful moments in Think Like a Freak, Steven Levitt…
There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of…
…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….
…used as a guide to official policy,” we should perhaps take this very good news with a grain of salt. But still: the Chinese government seems devoted, on many levels,…
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…
There are more than twice as many suicides as murders in the U.S., but suicide attracts far less scrutiny. Freakonomics Radio digs through the numbers and finds all kinds of…
…find cabs in many places. It is true that the Taxi and Limousine Commission tries to protect passengers by regulating fares and forbidding taxis from refusing undesirable trips. It also…
…business? Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein have come down strongly on the side of therapy in their book Nudge. Thaler, one of the founders of behavioral economics, has spent much…
…trials comparing the effectiveness of the WeightWatchers point system to other diet approaches.? For example, Miller-Kovach is a co-author of?this 2003 JAMA study (which showed that after 2-years WeightWatchers helped…
…companies that had proportions that were statistically significantly above the average. Here are the five worst-performers (of companies with at least 50 complaints): 5 Worst Performers in Percent Untimely and…
…for your buck When I give talks about aid effectiveness, people often comment that they too think this is important. And to make sure they are supporting good charities, they…
…altogether, instead resulting in an emergency “full deployment, with little more than computer-based risk estimates to guide us.” Or, alternately, some freelance geoengineering by a single government. (HT: Daniel Lippman)[%comments]…
…of the world’s 10 biggest companies. How did that happen? The answer may come down to two little letters: V.C. Is venture capital good for society, or does it just…
In light of Freakonomics’ commercial success, you might think that I would hold the title of best-selling author in, say, my census tract, or at least my city block. It…
…findings of [DHMG07], which (like some recent competitions to improve on the Elo system) are based only on the results of games, not on intrinsic decision-making. [HT: Tyler Cowen]…
…becoming one of the big shots at thestreet.com, making (and I fear eventually losing back) millions in the internet boom. Now, he is back at the Wall Street Journal, where…
In case you didn’t get your fill from our previous post, the e-mail guide Send — by The Times‘s OpEd editor, David Shipley, and former Hyperion Books editor-in-chief, Will Schwalbe…
…at Taxing Ourselves: A Citizen’s Guide to the Debate Over Taxes, by Joel Slemrod and Jon Bakija. Slemrod, an economist at the University of Michigan, is a profoundly experienced researcher…
