Freakonomics

"Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything offers some fascinating statistics. The real message, however, is not in the details, but in the overarching picture: the tools of economics (and, in our minds, data science) can be used to identify unexpected patterns in real-world occurrences, but scientists are still needed to interpret these results." Berkeley

"Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is the result of a partnership between a journalist, Stephen J. Dubner, and a University of Chicago economist, Steven D. Levitt. The two explain that the premise of Freakonomics sprung from an assignment Dubner received from New York Times Magazine to write a profile of Levitt. While interviewing Levitt, Dubner found that unlike other economists whom he had interviewed, he actually understood Levitt’s quirky yet effective way of explaining statistics. The two developed mutual respect, which resulted in their writing the best-selling book." enotes

"In Freakonomics authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner seek to expand the minds of readers with the idea that economics can be found in the most obscure situations. Levitt initially states that there is no “unifying theme” to the book, but there is: The introduction establishes the underlying idea that conventional wisdom is often full of misunderstandings, since one does not look into the motivations behind a situation to find the truth." Teen Ink Teen Ink

"Freakonomics is about unconventional wisdom, using the raw data of economics in imaginative ways to ask clever and diverting questions. Levitt even redefines his definition. If, as he says, economics is essentially about incentives and how people realise them, then economics is a prospecting tool, not a laboratory microscope." The Guardian

"Freakonomics, written with the help of the journalist Stephen J. Dubner, is an odd book. For one thing, it proudly boasts that it has no unifying theme. For another, each chapter begins with a quotation from the under-author (Dubner) telling us how great the over-author (Levitt) is: a "master of the simple, clever solution," a "noetic butterfly" (!), "genial, low-key and unflappable," etc. Yet a little self-indulgence can be tolerated in a book as instructive and entertaining as this one." The New York Times

"WHAT a shame about that title. “Freakonomics” is bound to dampen the spirits of any intelligent reader, suggesting an airport-ready, dumbed-down romp—the back cover would inevitably call it a romp—through the bogus theories of some semi-literate phoney economist. But that is not this book at all. Steven Levitt is no “rogue economist”, still less a phoney one; and his book, praise be, does not try to explore “the hidden side of everything”. Far more intelligent, modest and orthodox than it pretends, the book is a delight; it educates, surprises and amuses. It shows, in fact, what plain old-fashioned economics can do in the hands of a boundlessly curious and superbly skilled practitioner." The Economist