Superfreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Levitt, Steven D.; Dubner, Stephen J.

• ISBN13: 9780060889586
• ISBN10: 0060889586
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-24
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co

Summary

Freakonomics lived on the New York Times bestseller list for an astonishing two years. Now authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics-the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. Based on revolutionary research and original studies SuperFreakonomics promises to once again challenge our view of the way the world really works.

Author Biography

Steven D. Levitt is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the most influential economist under the age of forty. He is also a founder of The Greatest Good, a company that applies Freakonomic principles to philanthropy and business. Stephen J. Dubner, a former writer and editor at The New York Times, is the author of Turbulent Souls (Choosing My Religion), Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper, and the children's book The Boy with Two Belly Buttons. He is also the host of Freakonomics Radio.

Table of Contents

An Explanatory Note	p. XIII
In which we admit to lying in our previous book.
Introduction: Putting The Freak in Economics	p. 1
In which the global financial meltdown is entirely ignored in favor of more engaging topics.
The perils of walking drunk
The unlikely savior of Indian women
Drowning in horse manure
What is ôfreakonomics,ö anyway?
Toothless sharks and bloodthirsty elephants
Things you always thought you knew but didn't.
How is a Street Prostitute Like a Department-Store Santa?	p. 19
In which we explore the various costs of being a woman.
Meet LaSheena, a part-time prostitute
One million dead ôwitchesö
The many ways in which females are punished for being born female
Even Radcliffe women pay the price
Title IX creates jobs for women; men take them
1 of every 50 women a prostitute
The booming sex trade in old-time Chicago
A survey like no other
The erosion of prostitute pay
Why did oral sex get so cheap?
Pimps versus Realtors
Why cops love prostitutes
Where did all the schoolteachers go?
What really accounts for the male-female wage gap?
Do men love money the way women love kids?
Can a sex change boost your salary?
Meet Allie, the happy prostitute; why aren't there more women like her?
Why Should Suicide Bombers Buy Life Insurance?	p. 57
In which we discuss compelling aspects of birth and death, though primarily death.
The worst month to have a baby
The natal roulette affects horses too
Why Albert Aab will outshine Albert Zyzmor
The birthdate bulge
Where does talent come from?
Some families produce baseball players; others produce terrorists
Why terrorism is so cheap and easy
The trickle-down effects of September 11
The man who fixes hospitals
Why the newest ERs are already obsolete
How can you tell a good doctor from a bad one?
ôBitten by a client at workö
Why you want your ER doc to be a woman
A variety of ways to postpone death
Why is chemotherapy so widely used when it so rarely works?
ôWe're still getting our butts kicked by cancerö
War: not as dangerous as you think?
How to catch a terrorist.
Unbelievable Stories About Apathy and Altruism	p. 97
In which people are revealed to be less good than previously thought, but also less bad.
Why did 38 people watch Kitty Genovese be murdered?
With neighbors like these
What caused the 1960s crime explosion?
How the ACLU encourages crime
Leave it to Beaver: not as innocent as you think
The roots of altruism, pure and impure
Who visits retirement homes?
Natural disasters and slow news days
Economists make like Galileo and hit the lab
The brilliant simplicity of the Dictator game
People are so generous!
Thank goodness for ôdonorcyelesö
The great Iranian kidney experiment
From driving a truck to the ivory tower
Why don't real people behave like people in the lab?
The dirty rotten truth about altruism
Scarecrows work on people too
Kitty Genovese revisited.
The Fix is in-and It's Cheap and Simple	p. 133
In which big, seemingly intractable problems are solved in surprising ways.
The dangers of childbirth
Ignatz Semmelweis to the rescue
How the Endangered Species Act endangered species
Creative ways to keep from, paying for your trash
Forceps hoarding
The famine that wasn't
Three hundred thousand dead whales
The mysteries of polio
What really prevented your heart attack?
The killer car
The strange story of Robert McNamara
Let's drop some skulls down the stairwell!
Hurray for seat belts
What's wrong with riding shotgun?
How much good do car seats do?
Crash-test dummies tell no lies
Why hurricanes kill, and what can be done about it.
What Do Al Gore And Mount Pinatubo Have In Common?	p. 165
In which we take a cool, hard look at global warming.
Let's melt the ice cap!
What's worse: car exhaust or cow farts?
If you love the earth, eat more kangaroo
It all comes down to negative externalities
The Club versus LoJack
Mount Pinatubo teaches a lesson
The obscenely smart, somewhat twisted gentlemen of Intellectual Ventures
Assassinating mosquitoes
ôSir, I am every kind of scientist!ö
An inconvenient truthiness
What climate models miss
Is carbon dioxide the wrong villain?
ôBig-ass volcanoesö and climate change
How to cool the earth
The ôgarden hose to the skyö
Reasons to hate geoengineering
Jumping the repugnance barrier
ôSoggy mirrorsö and the puffy-cloud solution
Why behavior change is so hard
Dirty hands and deadly doctors
Foreskins are falling.
Epilogue
Monkeys Are People Too	p. 211
In which it is revealed that-aw, hell, you have to read it to believe it.
Bonus Matter
Q & A With the Authors	p. 217
The Things Our Fathers Gave Us	p. 227
Transcript From the First Freakonomics Radio Podcast	p. 231
Acknowledgments	p. 245
Notes	p. 249
Index	p. 285
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