Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Summary of the Book
What’s more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? Did you think it was a gun? Well, statistics proves you wrong. Did you know that schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have something in common? Or that there is a reason why drug dealers still live with their mothers? Steven D. Levitt makes a living by looking at numbers. Numbers make no sense to laymen, but when he first revealed his ideas on the relationship between abortion and the drop in crime rates, people began to take notice. Numbers can predict many things, and when read right they can also explain many others. Stephen Dubner teams up with Steven D. Levitt to jump head first into the intimidating sea of numbers. Readers can rest assured though, the things that they drag out of this abyss is sure to shock and inspire awe. So dive in with them if you’re interested in knowing how much one’s upbringing really matters or how real estate agents and members of the Ku Klux Klan are similar. A word of caution however, the answers Levitt and Dubner give you will definitely shock you.

About the Authors
Steven D. Levitt is an American economist. He is best known for his views on the relationship between legalized abortion and the drop in crime rates.
Levitt received his PhD. in economics from MIT. He is currently the William D. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor and the Director of the Becker Center on Price Theory at the University of Chicago.
Stephen J. Dubner is an American journalist.
Levitt and Dubner have also co-written SuperFreakonomics and Think Like A Freak.