Not so easy to adopt from China anymore
…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,…
…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,…
…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…
We now have more access to TV, movies, and streaming entertainment than anytime in history. So what do we actually know about what all that screen time does to us?…
…of living conditions. Yet even with controls, the elderly who live with children do worse. This is in sharp contrast to younger adults who live with children, likely their own,…
In this special episode of Freakonomics, M.D., host Bapu Jena looks at data from birthday parties, March Madness parties, and a Freakonomics Radio holiday party to help us all manage…
…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…
…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…
…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…
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…
Conventional programs tend to be expensive, onerous, and ineffective. Could something as simple (and cheap) as cognitive behavioral therapy do the trick?
…president of Harvard. He’s one of the most brilliant economists of his generation (and perhaps the most irascible). And he thinks the Trump Administration is wrong on just about everything….
…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…
Do you think public bathrooms are too small, smartphones are too big, and public transit just wasn’t made for you? Then you’re probably a woman. In her book Invisible Women:…
…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…
…consumption externality: how internet use affects the prevalence of sex crime in general, and rape and child sex abuse in particular. The data come from Norway’s government rollout of broadband…
…that unlike mothers, who undergo a major physical change with the birth of a child, testosterone changes only affect fathers who are actively involved in the life of their child….
…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…
…statistical and analytic thinking requirement. Also, journalists have to rethink their policy of featuring only gory events and terrifying threats. Tensions that fizzle out (e.g, remember how a decade ago…
…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…
(Photo: Dave Herholz) We’ve written in the past about the relationship between a child’s month of birth and a variety of later outcomes. In SuperFreakonomics, for instance, we wrote about…
…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…
…parental over-investment in their children is causing parents to be unhappy. He infers from this that we should invest less in each child, and have more children. In the classic…
Why learning to say “I don’t know” is one of the best things you can do.
How did an affable 18th-century “moral philosopher” become the patron saint of cutthroat capitalism? Does “the invisible hand” mean what everyone thinks it does? We travel to Smith’s hometown in…
Heeding the warnings of public health officer Charity Dean about Covid-19 could have saved lives. Charity explains why she loves infectious diseases and why she moved to the private sector….
…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….
…child following a daughter was 5.5 percent more likely to be a boy after land reform, doubling the prevailing rate of sex selection. Mothers with higher levels of education were…
Sure, you were “in love.” But economists — using evidence from Bridgerton to Tinder — point to what’s called “assortative mating.” And it has some unpleasant consequences for society….
Breakthroughs in biotech that seem like science fiction are becoming reality. Why aren’t more patients benefiting from them?…
Nick Kristof, writing in the N.Y. Times: This is what poverty sometimes looks like in America: parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms…
