How About Paying Parents for Their Kids’ Good Grade? This Guy Is Really Thinking Like a Freak
…to stay in school. I think paying the kids doesn’t take advantage of the leverage of a parent over their child. Just a thought. As a child in the feudal…
…to stay in school. I think paying the kids doesn’t take advantage of the leverage of a parent over their child. Just a thought. As a child in the feudal…
Trump says it would destroy us. Biden needs the voters who support it (especially the Bernie voters). The majority of millennials would like it to replace capitalism. But what is…
The controversial theory linking Roe v. Wade to a massive crime drop is back in the spotlight as several states introduce abortion restrictions. Steve Levitt and John Donohue discuss their…
People who sleep better earn more money. Now all we have to do is teach everyone to sleep better.
Suspenders may work better, but the dork factor is too high. How did an organ-squeezing belly tourniquet become part of our everyday wardrobe — and what other suboptimal solutions do…
Air pollution is estimated to cause 7 million deaths a year and cost the global economy nearly $3 trillion. But is the true cost even higher? Stephen Dubner explores the…
To her neighbors in the English countryside, the woman known as Mrs. Burton was a cake-baking mother of three. To the Soviet Union, she was an invaluable Cold War operative….
Harvard economist Claudia Goldin and Steve talk about how inflexible jobs and family responsibilities make it harder for women to earn wages equal to their male counterparts. But could Covid…
Fear is a popular tool in public health campaigns. But is it an effective one? Bapu Jena discusses new research on whether we can — and should — scare people…
According to a decades-long research project, the U.S. is not only the most individualistic country on earth; we’re also high on indulgence, short-term thinking, and masculinity (but low on “uncertainty…
As the Biden administration rushes to address climate change, Stephen Dubner looks at another, hidden cost of air pollution — one that’s affecting how we think….
Claudia Goldin is the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. Steve spoke to her in 2021 about how inflexible jobs and family responsibilities make it harder for women…
Picture day is an annual tradition for American families — and, for the companies that take the photos, a lucrative one. Zachary Crockett smiles for the camera….
…deceives parents into thinking their children are being well-prepared for college. They take out loans, send Junior off to college where s/he sinks like a stone. Tragic. Q. I’ve read…
…possible sanctions. The antithesis of this situation is the care children receive with their medical needs. If a med mal situation develops with a child all the parties responsible are…
…more other children had fewer office visits and filled fewer prescriptions for reliever and controller medications than children living with no other children. Children from single-mother families had more health…
…baby was about 9 months. I thought the length of that lag was intentional — meant to represent the wait one would have for a biological child. In recent months,…
In research with Roland Fryer, later written up in Freakonomics, we asked the question “Does the name you give your child matter for her life outcome?” (I say “her” because…
…to identify what was missing from the picture. “She forgot her necklace,” the child answered. “Well, yes, but what else?” her mother asked. “She forgot her bracelet,” the child answered….
…economic content. Let me address first the issue of which place you should think about investing your money. As with any decision like this, you need to know first what…
…like creative thinking and problem solving? Can a test in which the test-taker – that is, the student – does not have a direct stake in the outcome actually command…
…to “musings on economics and child rearing.” I’m never quite sure whether this blog is about the strange things one discovers when looking at the everyday experience of parenting through…
…baby-name-consulting business. According to this Reuters report, parents in Britian spend “up to 45 hours” picking out a name for their child, “a combined 30 million hours annually.” Let’s see:…
…so unpredictable, and perhaps world-changing, that they imprint themselves on our memories and con us into thinking of them as typical, or at least likely, whereas in fact they are…
…they did it with the blessing of the state. All four had been in-home child-care providers. Collectively they have 17 children. For years, the government has paid them to stay…
…a sheriff’s deputy helped his son flee the jurisdiction after alerting him that warrants had been issued for his arrest on child pornography charges. In Minnesota, a mother arrived home…
…guess is … very. On the other hand, as we write in the book, the name you give your child has no discernible effect on that child’s life outcome. So…
…the experience thinking, “It wasn’t bad.” I began to think that if I just had one appointment a month, I could pay my car loan with it, and have a…
…like Michael Jordan or Mozart? Those kinds of extraordinary people must just be different than the rest of us — more genetically gifted, right? A. That’s what it looks like…
…is fixed. People with one child live very different lives than people with zero children: Parents move to the suburbs, rarely travel, and stay home Saturday nights. But once you…
