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Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything | 
 enlarge | Authors: Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy Used: £2.37
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Rating:  147 reviews
Sales Rank: 187
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141019018
EAN: 9780141019017
ASIN: 0141019018
Publication Date: June 18, 2007
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| Customer Reviews: Read 142 more reviews...
 Buy the expanded edition January 5, 2009
S. Malpas (Cardiff, UK)
This book first arrived in a blizzard of publicity back in 2005. Now 4 years on, it has been re-released in a revised and expanded edition with an extra 90 pages of bonus material (be sure to order the 336-page edition) consisting of newspaper columns and blog entries, along with a few corrections and an overall restructuring (the previous introductory magazine excerpts to each chapter have now been consolidated into a single article and moved to the back of the book).
I found Freakonomics to be an engaging and entertaining read, albeit a fairly light one. It doesn't set out to teach or champion any particular theory or methodology; it simply takes a handful of diverse real life scenarios - parenting, the Ku Klux Klan, crack dealers, cheating school teachers, Sumo wrestlers, etc - and examines them through the lens of incentives and rewards.
This is another one of those books that shines a light on the shortcomings of human intuition and the oft-exaggerated merits of 'common sense' (in particular, the sections on how to increase voter turnout, and how to discourage late arrivals, are intriguing).
Freakonomics probably doesn't quite live up to its hype as "a phenomenon", but it remains thought-provoking and fun nonetheless. Also important to its success: it is very easy to follow. No prior knowledge of (or even interest in) economics is required.
A Quick, Clean Read December 15, 2008
J. Molyneux (Liverpool, UK)
You'll fly through this book. They give economics a sharp taste, but it's not drivell that they're talking. Indeed much of what they write is witty and convincing at the same time which I'd say is something difficult to achieve with such a subject.
It's not got 5 stars because despite the title 'Rogue Economist' the fellow is a little too PC. You'll see what I mean if you read the book. Even if you don't agree with everything in the book you'll fly through it so quickly that at least you can't accuse it of wasting much of your time.
 A look at things through the eyes of an economist. October 8, 2008
bookhound
38 out of 39 found this review helpful
This book is a general interest book- and it certainly is interesting. The book, for anyone looking for an entertaining read, will like it. In a nutshell, the book takes a look at all sorts of things in society, from crack gangs to parenting, and then attempts to make sense of them by applying econonmic principles. According to the book, economics is really the study of incentives, and so using this kind of angle, the book comes up with answers to why things work the way they do.
A book that's hard to put down, I'm sure many readers will enjoy it. Also recommend The Sixty-Second Motivator for a more simplistic explanation of what motivates people and gives them incentives to do what they do.
 Ho hum not very interesting application of numerical data to sociology August 26, 2008
Jezza (London)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I really can't see why this book attracted much interest. It's a collection of not very interesting observations, some obvious (children of rich parents do better than children of poor parents, estate agents are more interested in their commissions than in getting you the best price for your house), others tendentious (the crime statistics prove that more adding police reduces crime, IQ is hereditary). By and large the authors' opinions and observations are middle-of-road conservative, with some liberalism on race issues. Very little of this is about economics, just the application of some minute degree of numerical rigour to social issues. I'd skip it if I were you.
Fun & interesting August 17, 2008
Matt (UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a really interesting romp through some fairly random questions like "How is the KKK like a group of estate agents". The answers to the questions that drive this book are well discussed and backed up with research. Logical thought processes which bring to light some interesting answers. I particularly liked the discussion about reduction in crime rates being related to abortion policy (rather than policing or improved government crime prevention policies).
I'd agree with other reviewers in that it was a bit light on content...I got to the end and wanted more, but worth a read.
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