I'm not really sure how to review this book. It's a fairly easy, engrossing read packed full of fascinating material- but I'm still not entirely sure how to review it. Part of the problem might be the title- you go into it thinking that it's more of a straight up economics book but by the end you're wondering if it's more sociology than anything else- and then you're wondering just how closely the two fields might be intertwined when you get right down to the nitty gritty of it.
But it is damn interesting, I'll give it that. What is 'freakonomics' you ask? Well, consider it everything you ever wanted to know about a question you didn't even think to ask- that might seem a little crytpic, but this book covers such gems as: What do real estate agents and the KKK have in common? Why do drug dealers live with their moms? (Dealing crack is far less lucrative then you might think.) Just what's in a name? What do sumo wrestlers and teachers have in common? And just why did crime drop so precipitously in the early 90s?
As a reader, you have to marvel that the authors took the time to examine such questions in detail, but then you actually read what they concluded and you're pretty much blown straight out of the water. Turns out, they conclude (in a very un-PC type of way) that the drop in crime can be pinned on Roe vs. Wade- a whole cadre of unwanted (and therefore more likely to be felonious) babies failed to show up, because they weren't around. Both teachers and sumo wrestlers have a lot of incentives to cheat to preserve their jobs. Crack, it turns out, is most definately whack as your average street level crack dealer doesn't make squat- and then they demonstrate the fascinating case out of NYC of a Winner Lane and a Loser Lane. Loser went onto a distinguished career in the NYPD while Winner has a criminal record longer than your arm- so there's a fascinating discussion of that age old question: what's in a name?
It's good stuff- but the real question behind the book is more metaphysical in nature, I think. Is this economics as we know it? Dubner and Levitt take a more abstract- well, maybe that's not the right word, maybe it's more of a basic definition of the concept- defining it loosely as 'the study of how people get what they want' which is kind of what economics is all about really, but this doesn't read like a dry, dusty, coma-inducing economic theory either. I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be the fact that this book actually makes economics seem interesting that causes so much controversy in the dry and dusty halls of academia. This is an economics book I can actually get behind.
Overall: At the very least, this tag team of authors deserves a lot of credit for getting people to look at what might be considered very conventional questions in a totally different way- this is an easy read and totally worth it for just that reason alone.
Bonus blog: http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/
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