Reading Order
Freakonomics Reading Order
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (2005) applies economic tools — incentive analysis, natural experiments, data — to unexpected questions: Why do drug dealers live with their mothers? What do sumo wrestlers and schoolteachers have in common? Did the legalization of abortion cause crime to fall? One of the bestselling popular economics books ever written.
Where to start
Freakonomics
Complete Freakonomics Book List
- 1Buy
Freakonomics
Steven D. Levitt·2005·The original. Start here. - 2Buy
SuperFreakonomics
Steven D. Levitt·2009·The sequel, applying the same methodology to new questions including drunk walking, altruism, and global warming. Read second. - 3Buy
Think Like a Freak
Steven D. Levitt·2014·A self-help/methodology book explaining the 'Freakonomics thinking' behind the first two books. Read third.
Freakonomics — Frequently Asked Questions
Did legalized abortion really cause the crime drop?
Levitt and Donohue's 1999 paper (which became the most discussed chapter of Freakonomics) argued that the legalization of abortion in 1973 led to a significant decline in crime beginning in the early 1990s, because the children who would have been at highest risk of criminal activity (born to poor, young, and unprepared mothers) were never born. The theory has been highly controversial: other economists have disputed the methodology and data, and the ongoing academic debate (including corrections to Levitt and Donohue's original data) suggests the effect is smaller than originally claimed, though some causal relationship likely exists.
How does Freakonomics relate to Thinking, Fast and Slow?
Both books use empirical research to overturn confident intuitions, but their methods and conclusions differ: Kahneman's book focuses on the systematic errors in human judgment that arise from cognitive biases, while Freakonomics focuses on how incentives drive behavior in ways that people don't acknowledge or even perceive. Kahneman's work shows how our intuitions mislead us; Levitt's work shows how the structure of rewards and punishments shapes behavior underneath our conscious awareness.
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