[Jdm-society] new book "freakonomics"

[Reifman, Alan]

Many of you have probably already heard of the new book "Freakonomics"
(or perhaps have even already read it).  It is written by University of
Chicago economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner.  I, like
many Americans, first heard of Levitt in an August 3, 2003 New York
Times magazine profile of him, written by Dubner.  Here's a message I
sent to the SPSP list in 2003 shortly after seeing the Levitt profile:

http://www.stolaf.edu/cgi-bin/mailarchivesearch.pl?directory=/home/www/p
eople/huff/SPSP&listname=archive03&location=8731614

What has made Levitt stand out is his unconventional scholarly
portfolio.  He, by his own admission, has limited grasp of many
traditional economic ideas, is not associated with any theories in
economics, and does research on what seem to be unusual topics.  In
fact, Levitt recently characterized himself as being "adisciplinary," in
his blog (see below).

The talent he has, though (in addition to an amazing work ethic -- he
can sure crank out the papers), is in figuring out clever ways to design
analyses of archival data to address interesting questions.

http://www.src.uchicago.edu/users/levit/recentpublications.htm  

Do Sumo wrestlers throw matches?  Do real estate agents go the extra
mile to help their clients get the best possible deal in selling their
homes?  Might the legalization of abortion (starting in certain states
in the late 1960s and culminating in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision
nationally) be a major factor in the early 1990s crime drop?  Were
contestants of certain demographic groups discriminated against on "The
Weakest Link"?

In all of these cases (and others), Levitt and his collaborators came up
with ingenious comparisons to test within the relevant datasets that
would go a long way toward answering the questions.  Some of the
comparisons I could anticipate while reading the scenarios, but most I
could not.

Beyond the empirical analyses, however, the storytelling is also
spellbinding in places.  Two examples, in particular, are the story of
how one individual's strategic use of the Superman radio show helped
eviscerate the Ku Klux Klan, and of how one of Levitt's colleagues ended
up embedding himself in a Chicago crack-dealing gang as part of his
research studies.

At about 200 pages, Freakonomics is a pretty quick read, one that I
largely found exciting (there were a couple of studies that I thought
were less compelling than others, however).

The aforementioned study linking abortion to later reductions in crime
has been especially controversial.  I've seen Levitt and his
collaborator on that study, John Donohue, discuss this matter in various
venues.  The point they make, as I see it, is that the central concept
of the study is not abortion, per se, but rather reducing the incidence
of unwanted pregnancies and poorly cared for children, which can be
accomplished by many non-abortion means, such as sex education,
abstinence, contraception, parent education, adoption, etc.

The authors also maintain a blog related to the book (including reader
comments), so there's opportunity for extended discussion on many of the
issues raised in the book:  http://www.freakonomics.com/blog.php .
Levitt has even introduced new topics on the blog that were not in the
book, including one that is near and dear to my heart -- the "Moneyball"
approach to using statistics in sports decision-making (Levitt does not
dispute that Oakland A's GM Billy Beane was able to compile
play-off-caliber teams for many years with a much lower payroll than
other teams; Levitt's contention is that the A's did NOT employ
game-management strategies that were appreciably different from those of
other teams).

One last thing:  I want to state for the record that on May 11, 2001,
more than two years before ever hearing of Levitt, I sent a message to
the SPSP list suggesting the use of "The Weakest Link" to study
discrimination:

http://www.stolaf.edu/cgi-bin/mailarchivesearch.pl?directory=/home/www/p
eople/huff/SPSP&listname=archive01&location=2224330

As I've noted, however, the difference between Levitt and me is that he
actually goes ahead and DOES these studies! 

**********************************************************
Alan Reifman, Ph. D.,  Associate Professor
Dept of Human Dev't and Family Studies
College of Human Sciences
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-1162
(806) 742-3000
http://www.hs.ttu.edu/hdfs/Faculty/reifman.htm


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