Authors: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Genre: Popular Science
Pages (words): 288 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Levitt (a U. of Chicago economist) and Dubner (a journalist) team up once again to explore "the hidden side of everything." In this sequel, they examine data on prostitutes, doctor performance, the impact of television on women in India and childen in the U.S., the effectiveness of car seats, the dangers of walking drunk, and global warming, applying good economic thinking to each question to see what the data say.
Thoughts: If you liked Freakonomics, you'll like this book. I personally liked this one better than the first, but both are really good. Some of the things they talk about in this book I've already run across in various economics classes, but I still enjoyed hearing about them in a very accessible way, and there were plenty of surprising findings in there as well. But what I really liked about SuperFreakonomics (and its prequel) is that it is a great way to learn a bit about what most academic economists actually do for their research. In the news most people hear a lot from macroeconomists who opine on the direction of the economy and financial markets. In reality, though, more and more economists spend their time doing microeconomics, and this book gives a good glimpse in to what that actually is: asking an interesting question and then coming up with a clever way to find an answer. I think most people will find that micro is much more interesting than macro!
Disclaimer: There are several swear words, and the entire first chapter deals with the economics of prostitution. It's all quite clean, but probably not a topic for the kiddos.
