Freakonomics

Freakonomics

This paper analyses an article on the topic of Freakonomics. Freakonomics is a ground-breaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality (Levitt, Dubner, 2005).

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of everything. The authors assert that information asymmetry ...