The Economics of Obesity: A Q&A With the Author of The Fattening of America
…smokers, who tend to live shorter lives. What do you make of these results? Are they different from, or similar to studies you address in your book? A: I am…
…smokers, who tend to live shorter lives. What do you make of these results? Are they different from, or similar to studies you address in your book? A: I am…
What’s the difference between anger and indignation? What’s Angela’s problem with turkey sandwiches? And why wasn’t a No Stupid Questions listener angry at the men who assaulted him? Take the…
The economist Amy Finkelstein explains why insurance markets are broken and how to fix them. Also: why can’t you buy divorce insurance?…
In this installment of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, the economist Amy Finkelstein explains why insurance markets are broken and how to fix them. Also: why can’t you buy divorce…
…look at how prosbul melds the religious and legalistic, see Solomon Zeitlin‘s 1947 paper “Prosbol: A Study in Tannaitic Jurisprudence.” Another loophole, meanwhile, called heter mechira, was developed in response…
…unveil the most comprehensive anti-doping program ever seen in any sport. Every single rider in the race — 136 in all — will submit to pre-race blood testing to look…
Most travelers want the cheapest flight they can find. Airlines, meanwhile, need to manage volatile fuel costs, a pricey workforce, and complex logistics. So how do they make money —…
How can we distinguish between laziness and patience? Why do people do crossword puzzles? And how is Angie like a combination of a quantum computer and a Sherman tank? Take…
Birthdays! Why do Americans prefer Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July to theirs? Why do they make Stephen think of molasses and chicken feed? And is “Happy Birthday” the worst…
The most expensive drugs in the world are treatments for genetic diseases. And more of these cures are on the horizon. How will anyone be able to afford them?…
mRNA vaccines helped bring the pandemic under control. Could they also train the immune system to fight cancer?…
…the day, they could never be sure who had voted for them. A similar anti-transparency argument can be applied to campaign finance. We might replicate the benefits of the voting…
…bit familiar: if I recall correctly, a similar technology is already in place at such fine establishments as Chuck E. Cheese’s. When you show up, they give you a little…
Is sobbing a survival tactic? What happened when Angela wept in front of her boss? And what do sauerkraut and sadness have in common?…
…in their home precincts. Matt Bai, in a column in this past Sunday’s Times Magazine, offers a similar view, superbly laid out, about today’s primaries, which for months have been…
And with her book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, she succeeded. Now she’s not so sure how to feel about all the attention….
Figuring out which patients to hospitalize and which to safely send home can be tricky. Is there a way to make this decision easier for doctors — and get better…
We tend to look down on artists who can’t match their breakthrough success. Should we be celebrating them instead?…
…and declare all social media evil. It’s easy to look at a lot of elements of today’s society and cry foul. It’s equally easy to look at the new technology…
How do you express yourself when you’re not sure what you want to say? What’s the number one way to get people to listen to you? And why are letters…
…did the reporter (Elisa Gootman) and her editors have about including this quote? If a black principal took over a yeshiva, would a similar quote in reverse from a Jewish…
…than to all pitchers who had a similarly successful first act, the report artificially minimizes the chances that Clemens will look unusual. There’s a pretty neat trick at work here:…
…roughly similar pattern, although some look more suspicious and some less suspicious. 3. Creating a Comparison Group To figure out whether Clemens’s performance is unusual, we needed to compare his…
It is devilishly hard to lose weight. A randomized control year-long study looked at the impact of four different diets (Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets) on a group…
…darn motivated. Indeed, having now made this commitment, in 94 days time, I’ll look forward to sharing with you some thoughts on whether it helped. When I think hard about…
…number of comments per post that promises schwag?” Excellent question. Over the past few months, for typical posts (i.e., not including “FREAK-est Links” or other similar short posts), here is…
Time is precious. How can doctors and patients make the best use of it — especially when there isn’t much left?…
…to combat gangs, this is one of the latest efforts to outmaneuver gang members. Other similar initiatives have included: city ordinances that limit two or more gang members from hanging…
…a placebo pill that they were told was similar to codeine. In fact, the pill had no direct medical benefit at all. While half of the patients were told that…
…controlling for the fund’s ability to pay or the timing of the settlement. Zitzewitz also obtains similar results when he uses two useful instrumental variables for whether the New York…
