Comments (46)

Freakonomics

a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
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Aug 11, 2023chesswiz rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Freakonomics explores the hidden side of "everything" and explains the economics in a whole new different way. Levitt and Dubner explore economic theories and explain everyday occurrences and phenomena. The book takes a deep dive into the…
Jul 29, 2023dgiard rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The writings of economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner read more like a take on sociology than an academic treatise on economics. Due to their unconventional approach, the authors chose the title "Freakonomics" for…
Oct 07, 20202441gisele rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
overrated NOT a particularly FUN read, yet it indeed filled with fun facts but not even close to what it stated on the cover"everything". The book certainly provided a lot of observations of bizarre facts and connected the dots…
Mar 29, 2020kwsmith rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This book isn't really about Economics. Instead, it's about how applying statistical analysis tools to various social science problems can reveal interesting patterns. I think there is some truth to the conclusions, but not always absolute…
Mar 23, 2020blue_jackal_77 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Freakonomics is a fantastic read for someone looking for a casual and fun yet somewhat educational work of non-fiction. The way of thinking described in this book is something that most everyone should try, because inefficiency and…
Feb 04, 2019mclarjh rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Easy to read, if a little voluminous, popular rather than rigorous. The author's comparison of risk traveling by aircraft vs car per hour is indefensible, otherwise okay.
Mar 19, 2018SPPL_János rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Levitt and other economists apply the tools of their field to illuminate a variety of astonishing truths. According to their number-crunching, it's safer to have a gun in your household than a swimming pool, legal abortions lower the crime…
Aug 03, 2017TEENREVIEWCREW rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a book written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner in 2006, and published in 2009. It has received a lot of praise when it was first released. Some of the…
CarleeMcDot
Jul 24, 2017CarleeMcDot rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I actually graduated with a degree in Economics. I enjoyed this book so much the first time I read it that I actually got a signed copy. (I took a class in school on the economics of crime…
Sep 17, 2016zipread rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Freakonomics. --- by. --- Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner. First off, I'm not sure that Levitt & Dubner's credentials as economists, rogue or otherwise, has anything of substance to do with the contents of this book. Having said…
cloux1107
Sep 08, 2016cloux1107 rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
I don't know why but when I opened it to read on overdrive, I got "Fragile Things" by Neil Gaiman. Is there an issue with this ebook?
Jun 18, 2016
eye opener
Oct 28, 2015blolo rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I couldn’t help compare this to Malcolm Gladwell books. While I thought it was okay, I didn’t enjoy it as much as MG books. Partially I think the blurbs talking about how awesome this economist is turned me off. Partially I think it was…
Mar 28, 2015rswcove rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
This book is not a bad book. It is reasonably entertaining as pop psychology, but pointless. This book is a sideshow and a stand up comedy routine. It is a pop tart, sweet but unsatisfying. It is a distraction, nothing more. Read it on the…
Dec 06, 2014sanitycheck rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I liked the book - really entertaining. I was often laughed. You have to have some intellect, some knowledge of statistics and definitely scene of humor in order to enjoy it. The book definitely makes you to think out of box. If you are…
Sep 25, 2013willgreg rated this title 1 out of 5 stars
Condescending, full of nonsense, and bloated like a dead fish. This book takes about half a dozen interesting research results and slowly drags us through them, flogging the dead horse again and again each time. The audiobook chapter(s)…
Jun 20, 2013danielestes rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I had heard about the celebrated Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner for years without ever being curious enough to open the book. The whole idea of "the hidden side of everything" seemed to insinuate something steeped…
May 01, 2013edgarmk rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
There are lies, damn lies and statistics. This book uses false statistics to prove false analogies. If you ever took basic university math, that is the first thing you are warned NOT to do. Sad that such books are published with so much…
Apr 28, 2013
I've never taken any formal economics classes, and this book was just plain odd. There was nothing about money or the economy, just instances in which the authors used statistics to attempt to prove truly random things. That being said,…
Apr 28, 2013
I believe I have returned this.
Feb 08, 2013
It is both interesting and pertinent that many commenters compared this to Malcolm Gladwell, an author who used many long-invalidated studies (Eysenck's many studies, that tobacco study by the tobacco companies, etc.) in his book (I…
bluedog8422
Sep 27, 2012
High praise for all efforts made by Stetson Kennedy
Mar 05, 2012MadReads rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I've never thought about economics as anything but having to do with finances but Levitt uses economics to analyze much more than that, making for a highly interesting read.
Dec 21, 2011LSwayne rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
Better than not learning anything about economics- but there are much better titles that cover the same theory and applications. (Economics of real estate, contraception quotidian human behaviour etc). Disliked the tone, found it to be…
Dec 21, 2011MatteoImparare rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This ground-breaking book is a collection of odd, fairly disconnected, stories. The common theme between all of them is that economic analysis has been used to crack the enigma. The resulting behaviour can be explained using…