SuperFreakonomics Book Club: Emily Oster Answers Your Questions
…in women’s access. We do several things to address this concern. First, we do observe income and education. We control extensively for changes in income over time, and for education,…
Can you quantify emotional intelligence? Who should you hire — someone smart, or someone good with people? And how did Angie do on an online emotional intelligence test?…
When Stephen Dubner learned that Dallas–Fort Worth will soon overtake Chicago as the third-biggest metro area in the U.S., he got on a plane to find out why. Despite getting…
…in women’s access. We do several things to address this concern. First, we do observe income and education. We control extensively for changes in income over time, and for education,…
Steve usually asks his guests for advice, whether they’re magicians or Nobel laureates. After nearly 60 episodes, is any of it worth following — or should we just ask listeners…
Humans have been having kids forever, so why are modern parents so bewildered? The economist Emily Oster marshals the evidence on the most contentious topics — breastfeeding and sleep training,…
Also: is it better to be right or “not wrong”?…
Economists preach the gospel of “creative destruction,” whereby new industries — and jobs — replace the old ones. But has creative destruction become too destructive?
Why is unemployment still so high? It may be because of something that happened well before the Great Recession.
If you think talent and hard work give top athletes all the leverage to succeed, think again. As employees in the Sports-Industrial Complex, they’ve got a tight earnings window, a…
Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign has been just as unorthodox. He has just announced he’s stepping down, well before…
Dubner and Levitt talk about fixing the post office, putting cameras in the classroom, and wearing hats.
The U.N.’s World Happiness Report — created to curtail our unhealthy obsession with G.D.P. — is dominated every year by the Nordic countries. We head to Denmark to learn the…
The U.N.’s World Happiness Report — created to curtail our unhealthy obsession with G.D.P. — is dominated every year by the Nordic countries. We head to Denmark to learn the…
The next chapter in the adventures of Dubner and Levitt has begun. Listen to a preview of what’s to come for the fall season of Freakonomics Radio….
…current state of American higher education. Among some of the more interesting nuggets: Only 19% of college presidents say the U.S. system of higher education is the best in the…
Lessons from Tom Petty’s rise and another rocker’s fall: A conversation with Warren Zanes, former member of the Del Fuegos and the author of Petty: The Biography ….
Mark Zuckerberg’s dentist dad was an early adopter of digital x-rays. Jack Welch blew the roof off a factory. Carol Bartz was a Wisconsin farm girl who got into computers….
People who sleep better earn more money. Now all we have to do is teach everyone to sleep better.
Academic studies are nice, and so are Nobel Prizes. But to truly prove the value of a new idea, you have to unleash it to the masses. That’s what a…
Economists preach the gospel of “creative destruction,” whereby new industries — and jobs — replace the old ones. But has creative destruction become too destructive?
We are in the midst of a nationwide search for a single magic bullet in education. But the more evidence that is gathered, the more obvious it becomes that no…
…to measure the success of each one. If you’re trying to assess U.S. public grade-school education, you can look at the great many metrics that represent the system — dollars…
…associated with high educational skill) underwent a reversal. Many researchers have documented a strong, ongoing increase in the demand for skills in the decades leading up to 2000. In this…
A Florida state task force on education has just released a recommendation to adjust tuition, by major. “Tuition would be lower for students pursuing degrees most needed for Florida’s job…
…old and he had the second-best job in education. He had nowhere to go but down, since the only better job would be secretary of education. For all his accomplishments…
…jump on their careers while their new employers pay for the remainder of their education. This new site could be to summer internships what online education has become to on-campus…
…have a successful career. Despite their belief in the value of post-secondary education, though, only 38 per cent definitely planned to attend college to get more education in the next…
It boosts economic opportunity and social mobility. It’s good for the environment. So why do we charge people to use it? The short answer: it’s complicated….
Our cognitive health can change as we get older. So, does leaving the workforce make problems like memory loss and difficulty focusing worse? We investigate the research, and Bapu asks:…
Researchers are trying to figure out who gets bored — and why — and what it means for ourselves and the economy. But maybe there’s an upside to boredom?
