Mostly more of the same as Freakonomics with riffs on Malcolm Gladwell's books thrown in. The glaring difference is the chapter on climate change which attempts to go waaay beyond the author's expertise in behavioral economics and contains unfortunate misrepresentations of climate science. For a detailed critique, I'd recommend: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/... Still, there's no denying that convincing the public to recognize the need to curb CO2 emissions is an almost impossible task. A...

Incredible, fast, entertaining read. Thinkers like this one occasionall remind me just why I have chosen my profession.Short Synopsis says it all!(Q):Putting the Freak in Economics 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 “freakonomics,” anyway?…Toothless sharks and bloodthirsty elephants…Things you always thought you knew but didn’t.Chapter 1. How i...

This book is an enjoyable foray into using the scientific method through behavioral economics to approach fundamental yet quirky questions about the way the world works. They cover topics from hand washing (or the lack thereof) in medical settings to solutions regarding climate change. All of these topics are explained and described with a beautiful combination of warmth and humor - I found myself laughing out loud at some of their insights.Here is a longer list of topics they explore:What types...

coming from a research background heavy in statistics, I immediately recognized the interpretive errors contained in Freakenomics. Initially I found it amusing to see the absurd conclusions made through cherry picking outlier results based on correlational and/or poorly designed research studies. Half way through the book, I got bored but continued through just so I could quote my concerns first hand during debates with the many non-scientists that became so excited about the book. The second bo...

I liked this book more than I expected I would like it and liked it more than their previous effort – but have given it less stars this time than the last one. The reason for this is that their last book introduced me to the whole field of behavioural economics and one is always fond of books that introduce entire new fields.I had some real problems with some of the contents of this book – or rather, not the contents so much as the underlying philosophy. There is a lack of consistency of thought...

TABLE OF CONTENTS (close to verbatim):Intro--In which the global financial meltdown is entirely ignored in favor of more engaging topics:the perils of walking drunkthe unlikely savior of Indian womendrowning in horse manurewhat is freakonomicstoothless sharks & bloodthirsty elephantsthings you always thought you knew but didn'tChapter 1--In which we explain the various costs of being a woman:LaShanna, part-time prostituteOne million dead "witches"The many ways in which females are punished for b...

Those renegade, cold blooded micro economists are back for more fun filled worldly observations and scathing attacks on the status quo. This time around the pair explore the economics of the worlds oldest profession and the myths and realities of global warming. Makes me want to consider the incentives of most every occurrence and transaction. Levitt is on to something pretty cool here.

A reluctant 3 stars. I'll give this book the benefit of the doubt and say that it probably would have worked better for me had I read it rather than listening to it. While I love the fact that audiobooks allow me to multi-task, it means that I'm less focused when I'm listening to them. That's fine if it's a book like Savannah Blues but this book demanded more concentration, especially since the writing style was highly tangential to begin with.Those who read “Freakonomics” are familiar with what...

Ugh, pop culture trash masquerading as economics (in turn masquerading as hard science).There were so many glaring flaws in the authors' assumptions, "logic", and conclusions that within just the introduction they had already lost all credibility.Right up front the authors declare that fears about global warming are overblown because the issue will likely be solved by technological innovation and then offer as proof the fact that cars eliminated the problems caused by horse-based transportation....

Reading this book was an enormous pleasure. It was like sitting down with a superb raconteur, and hearing story after story of amazing and extraordinary events. "Oh no" you exclaim, "surely that one can't be true!" But yes, it is! And so you leap on hungrily to the next peculiar story.This is a treasure chest of information for anyone interested in psychology, economics or just sheer human cussedness. The people behind the book work brilliantly together - economics lecturer Steven Levitt, and Ne...

the first few chapters were just a continuation of the first book in terms of ideas, tone and excecution; thus, i was feeling pretty satisfied that i was reading such a book and becoming more of a "cold-blooded economist", than a "warm-blooded humanist" (or whatever condescending, self-congratulatory phrases they used were). and then these guys got derailed, in a very sad, strange and self-defeating way. they did this weird about face, where in one chapter they talk about the law of unintended

3,5/5 ⭐“Most of us want to fix or change the world in some fashion. But to change the world, you first have to understand it.”This was the second book I read on behavioral economics and I did not enjoy it as much as the first one - it is worth clarifying the first book I read on the topic was Freakonomics. Just to give you an overall idea of what the book is like, it has the same structure as Freakonomics. Each chapter goes over a situation and it is analysed using statistics with psychology and...

The basic premise of this book is simple: to apply economic principles and methodology to understand the reasons why people do the things they do (or as the authors call it, the incentives behind behavior).Or, as the authors paraphrase Gary Becker on page 12, the "economic approach." That being said, it is very similar to their first book, which I also read. This one builds upon it in that it goes on to explain more cases of things that seemingly have no connection or common theme, but in fact d...