What Are the Lessons of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Battle? A Freakonomics Quorum
Even if you don’t care one bit — and this probably describes the vast majority of Americans — you have probably heard by now that a Great Format War has…
Even if you don’t care one bit — and this probably describes the vast majority of Americans — you have probably heard by now that a Great Format War has…
This is the time of year when high-school seniors receive letters, thick or thin, from college admissions departments. (I have two nieces who both just got some thick letters from…
It’s a widely held perception that the professional athletes who constitute Major League Baseball and the National Football League have different levels of power — i.e., players have more juice…
…investments made for that purpose. At the level of the industry or even economy as a whole, economists use the concept of “total factor productivity,” which captures a similar idea….
The headline says it all, although the unspoken question is: will globalization indeed result in the hegemony of English, as has long been promised/threatened? We gathered up some wise people…
Safety is an all-too-familiar issue in the construction industry — workers in Las Vegas are striking over it; in April, New York’s building commissioner resigned in light of more than…
We’ve written before about various “beauty premiums”: the advantages gained in the marketplace by people who are better looking, taller, or have better teeth than the average person. Empiricism and…
…parenting. While it has always been fun to follow Joshua’s economic musings on his blog, Core Economics, I have been having more fun following his parenting blog, Game Theorist, devoted…
New York magazine reports on one of the great puzzles of parenting: “Most people assume that having children will make them happier. Yet a wide variety of academic research shows…
…role of parents’ willpower limitations, particularly with respect to low-income parents: Good parenting requires psychic resources. Complex decisions must be made. Sacrifices must be made in the moment. This is…
The ethologist and conservationist discusses the thrill of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the value of challenging orthodoxy, and why dying is her next great adventure.
The primatologist discusses the thrill of observing chimpanzees in the wild, the value of challenging orthodoxy, and why dying is her next great adventure….
Among O.E.C.D. nations, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of child poverty. Until recently, it looked as if Washington was about to change that. But then … Washington…
Among O.E.C.D. nations, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of child poverty. How can that be? To find out, Stephen Dubner speaks with a Republican senator, a Democratic…
Levitt and Dubner revisited The Today Show on Thursday, June 16. Here’s a transcript: Copyright 2005 National Broadcasting Co. Inc. HEADLINE: Today’s Real Estate; Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt ANCHORS:…
There have been several requests on this blog for a transcript of the authors’ recent appearance on The O’Reilly Factor. Here it is: Copyright 2005 Fox News Network, LLC. Fox…
How do courts interpret those little icons on your phone? Zachary Crockett brings down the hammer….
The creator of The Wire, The Deuce, and other shows is leading the Writers Guild on the picket lines. He and Steve break down the economics of TV writing, how…
We assembled a panel of smart dudes—a two-time Super Bowl champ; a couple of N.F.L. linemen, including one who’s getting a math Ph.D at M.I.T., and our resident economist—to tell…
For decades, the great fear was overpopulation. Now it’s the opposite. How did this happen — and what’s being done about it? (Part one of a three-part series, “Cradle to…
Also: what is the most significant choice you will ever make?…
…what Amy Chua‘s controversial new book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, refers to as?Tiger parenting. (Full disclosure: I am a friend and colleague of Amy Chua.? Her book had…
…my accounts of my “do(n’t) try this at home” parenting interventions—bribing my kids to do math, not teaching them to decode words on the page, exposing them to sewage to…
…he’ll be one of the guests in an upcoming Freakonomics Radio show tentatively titled “An Economist’s Guide to Parenting.” Kids and Costs By Bryan Caplan One day when my wife…
…Freakonomics Radio show called “An Economist’s Guide to Parenting.” He had a great deal to say on the topic, all of it interesting and much of it provocative. I think…
The end of the year is a giving season for many (I suppose a cynical economist might think tax deductions has something to do with it). Most of us like…
…We speak with an analytics guru, an agent, some former running backs (including LeSean McCoy), and the economist Roland Fryer (a former Pop Warner running back himself) to understand why….
…too early to see impact of the falling dollar on the publishing of guidebooks to euro destinations. As for dealing with a devalued U.S. currency while traveling, we must all…
Toward the end of our latest Freakonomics Radio podcast, “The Economist’s Guide to Parenting,” Steve Levitt points to the loads of social science research demonstrating that the one sure-fire way…
…Produced (calculation) in 2011-12 (numbers from The NBA Geek). Thunder 2011-12 Games Played Minutes Played Wins Produced per 48 minutes (WP48) Wins Produced Kevin Durant 66 2546 0.226 11.97 James…
