An explanatory note: in which the origins of this book are clarified
Preface to the revised and expanded edition
Introduction: The Hidden Side of Everything: [rtoc]In which the book’s central idea is set forth: namely, if morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work — Why the conventional wisdom is so often wrong … How “experts” — from criminologists to real-estate agents to political scientists — bend the facts … why knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, is the key to understanding modern life … What is “freakonomics”, anyway?[/rtoc]
What do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? [rtoc]In which we explore the beauty of incentives, as well as their dark side — cheating. Who cheats? Just about everyone … How cheaters cheat, and how to catch them … Stories from an Israeli day-care centre … The sudden disappearance of seven million American children … Cheating schoolteachers in Chicago … Why cheating to lose is worse than cheating to win … Could sumo wrestling, the national sport of Japan, be corrupt? … What the Bagel man saw: mankind may be more honest than we think.[/rtoc]
How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real Estate Agents? [rtoc]In which it is argued that nothing is more powerful than information especially when its power is abused. Spilling the Ku Klux Klan’s secrets … why experts of every kind are in the perfect position to exploit you … The antidote to information abuse: the internet … Why a new car is suddenly worth so much less the moment it leaves the lot … Breaking the real-estate agent code: what “well-maintained” really means … Is Trent Lott more racist than the average Weakest Link contestant? … What do online dates lie about?[/rtoc]
Why do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms? [rtoc]in which conventional wisdom is often found to be a web of fabrication, self-interest and convenience. Why experts routinely make up statistics; the invention of chronic halitosis … How to ask a good question … Sudhir Venkatesh’s long, strange trip into the crack den … Life is a tournament … Why prostitutes earn more than architects … What a drug dealer, a high-school quarterback, and an editorial assistant have in common … How the invention of crack cocaine mirrored the invention of nylon stockings … Was crack the worst thing to hit black Americans since Jim Crow?[/rtoc]
Where Have All The Criminals Gone? [rtoc]In which the facts of crime are sorted out from the fictions … What Nicolae Ceausescu learned—the hard way—about abortion … Why the 1960s was a great time to be a criminal … Think the roaring 1990s economy put a crimp on crime? Think again … Why capital punishment doesn’t deter criminals … Do police actually lower crime rates? …. Prisons, prisons everywhere … Seeing through the New York City police “miracle” … What is a gun, really? … Why early crack dealers were like Microsoft millionaires and later crack dealers were like Pets.com … The super predator versus the senior citizen … Jane Roe, crime stopper: how the legalisation of abortion changed everything[/rtoc]
What Makes a Perfect Parent? [rtoc]In which we ask, from a variety of angles, a pressing questions: do parents really matter? The conversion of parenting from an art to a science … Why parenting experts like to scare parents to death … Which is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool? … The economics of fear … Obsessive parents and the nature-nurture quagmire … Why a good school isn’t as good as you might think … The black-white test gap and “acting white” … Eight things that make a child do better in school and eight that don’t.[/rtoc]
Perfect Parenting, Part II, or: Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell As Sweet? [rtoc]In which we weight the importance of a parent’s first official act — naming the baby. A boy named Winner and his brother, Loser … The blackest names and the whitest names … The segregation of culture: why Seinfeld never made the top fifty among black viewers … If you have a really bad name, should you just change it? … High-end names and low-end names (and how one becomes the other) … Britney Spears: a symptom, not a cause … Is Aviva the next Madison? … What your parents were telling the world when they gave you your name.[/rtoc]
Epilogue: Two Paths to Harvard In which the dependability of data meets the randomness of life.
Bonus Material Added to the Revised and Expanded 2006 Edition
The original New York Times Magazine article about Steven D. Levitt by Stephen J. Dubner
Seven “Freakonomics” columns written for the New York Times Magazine between August 2005 and April 2006[rtoc]
Up in Smoke Whatever happened to crack cocaine?
Does the Truth Lie Within? One professor’s lifetime of self-experimentation
Curbing Your Dog Can technology keep New York City scooped?
Why vote? There’s no good economic rationale for going to the polls. So what is it that drives the democratic instinct?
The Economy of Desire Can fear of AIDS change sexual preference?
Hoodwinked? Does it matter if an activist who exposes the inner workings of the Ku Klux Klan isn’t open about how he got these secrets?
Filling in the Tax Gap Why Americans should be clamouring for the IRS to do more audits, not fewer[/rtoc]