…an investigative report released Tuesday by Gov. Nathan Deal. In the report, the governor’s special investigators describe an enterprise where unethical — and potentially illegal — behavior pierced every level…
There are 7,000 languages spoken on Earth. What are the costs — and benefits — of our modern-day Tower of Babel? (Part 3 of the “Earth 2.0” series.)…
Kidney failure is such a catastrophic (and expensive) disease that Medicare covers treatment for anyone, regardless of age. Since Medicare reimbursement rates are fairly low, the dialysis industry had to…
Ordering your significant other to ignore the attractive person at the next table might backfire, according to a new study. Nathan DeWall and Timothy Deckman conducted a series of experiments…
Actually, the reasons are pretty clear. The harder question is: Will we ever care enough to stop?…
The state-by-state rollout of legalized weed has given economists a perfect natural experiment to measure its effects. Here’s what we know so far — and don’t know — about the…
Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman is also a friend and former business partner of Steve’s. In discussing Danny’s new book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment,…
The more successful an artist is, the more likely their work will later be resold at auction for a huge markup — and they receive nothing. Should that change? Also:…
…other cognitive competencies, the resources that govern spending may also be menstrual-cycle sensitive, and our data reflect women’s lower self-regulatory resources during the luteal (pre-menstrual) phase.” (HT: Nathan Yang) [%comments]…
…8.2% in the following month, while portfolios of uninformed trades yield negative abnormal returns. Furthermore, the gains accrue over a short horizon, indicative of time-sensitive insider information. (HT: Nathan Yang)…
…in microblogging forums,” the authors write. “In sum, we find that stock microblogs contain valuable information that is not yet fully incorporated in current market indicators.” (HT: Nathan Yang) [%comments]…
In one of the earliest Freakonomics Radio episodes (No. 39!), we asked a bunch of economists with young kids how they approached child-rearing. Now the kids are old enough to…
…third wife, Judith Nathan Giuliani; ‘social issues,’ on which is he is more liberal than most Republicans, and his former wife Donna Hanover.” If you’re playing the Information Asymmetry game,…
The public has almost no chance to buy good tickets to the best events. Ticket brokers, meanwhile, make huge profits on the secondary markets. Here’s the story of how this…
Aging carries a risk of losing our memory, focus, and ability to take care of ourselves and others. Does leaving the workforce worsen that risk? We investigate the research. And…Bapu…
Steve Hilton was the man behind David Cameron’s push to remake British politics. Things didn’t work out so well there. Now he’s trying to launch a new political revolution —…
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…
…a fact that happiness breeds a better worker? Not necessarily, according to Wright State University psychologist Nathan Bowling. In a new paper called “Is the job satisfaction-job performance relationship spurious?…
There’s a scarcity of Obamas in the U.S. (HT: Going Like Sixty) Does having a weird name make you more likely to play football for L.S.U.? (HT: Nathan M. Gaudet)…
Nathan Nunn, an economist at the University of British Columbia, has written an interesting working paper called “The Long-Term Effects of Africa’s Slave Trade.” His abstract sums it up well:…
Dubner and Levitt talk about fixing the post office, putting cameras in the classroom, and wearing hats.
David Eagleman upends myths and describes the vast possibilities of a brainscape that even neuroscientists are only beginning to understand. Steve Levitt interviews him in this special episode of People…
Harvard economist Raj Chetty uses tax data to study inequality, kid success, and social mobility. He explains why you should be careful when choosing your grade school teachers — and…
…The Forward (article by Josh Nathan-Kazis). While synagogue members pay annual dues, churches rely primarily on voluntary donations from members. The Forward interviewed church and synagogue officials at institutions in…
In this new addition to the Freakonomics Radio Network, co-hosts Stephen Dubner and Angela Duckworth discuss the relationship between age and happiness. Also, does all creativity come from pain? New…
…she sent me; in order to protect the potentially innocent, I will obscure their last names: Eric Wayne XXXXXX — sex charges Nathan Wayne XXXXXX — kidnapping and beating, homicide…
Does anyone have any real agency? What do McDonald’s and Oxford University have in common? And why did Angela give up on philosophy?
…I beg to submit that it is the first.” More incisively, George Jean Nathan wrote in Testament of a Critic (1931) that “Patriotism, as I see it, is often an…
Nobel laureate, bestselling author, and groundbreaking psychologist Daniel Kahneman died in March. In 2021 he talked with Steve Levitt — his friend and former business partner — about his book…
