Non-fiction Book Review

 

Freakonomics

by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

That's not to say that Freakonomics isn't a good read. It is. It's also an excellent tool for showing conventional thinkers that conventional wisdom is seldom wise, and that the big picture is almost always far different than the little picture. Hidden motives and machinations are not easily seen until one adapts to a new way of thinking, and this usually involves thinking outside the buns.

Levitt and Dubner do this quite well, but in a relatively minor way. While the authors correctly stress the importance of asking the right questions and finding the right data, their research subjects lack a degree of relevance. Who cares if drug dealers still live with their mothers? A subject more worthwhile would have been why illegal drugs are profitable to begin with. Who cares if a real estate agent is motivated to work harder at selling a house she owns than she does at selling your house? Certainly, learning how real estate speculators drive low-income workers out of the housing market and contribute to the growing numbers of homeless people would be a more worthy effort.

Still, authors Levitt and Dubner remain faithful to their premise that incentives propel the economy in the same way they do other human motivations. For me, Freakonomics disappointed because it aimed low and scored a bulls-eye, when it could have aimed high and done the same thing

Steven D. Levitt, recent recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal for best economist under age 40, is an economics teacher at the University of Chicago.

Co-author Stephen J. Dubner writes for The New Yorker and the New York Times. He lives in New York City.

Review by Phil Hanson

Click on the title to order your copy of Freakonomics.

Copyright © 2005 by Phil Hanson
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