Thesis Of Freakonomics - 1352 Words

AP Macroeconomics Summer Homework Seohee Lee Period 5 I) Introduction Book Title: Freakonomics Author name: Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner The author Steven Levitt studied economics at Harvard University and MIT. He is primarily known for his work in the field of crime. The title Freakonomics means a study of economics based on the principles of incentives. The title is related to the book since he emphasizes how incentives drive and affect people’s actions. Although this book does not have a single theme, the main focus of the book is a new way of interpreting the world using economic tools. He explores incentives, information asymmetry, conventional wisdom, crime and abortion, and parenting throughout the six chapters of the book.†¦show more content†¦As an example of incentive, Levitt introduces a daycare study in which a daycare center fines $3 for parents who comes late. The study finds out that the number of parents coming late increased as they put a $3 of fine. He explains that the incentive of $3 was too small, and the fine made the parents to not feel the moral guilt for showing up late, result ing in more parents being late. Levitt next examines the incentives that cause people to cheat. The first example of cheating is a story of teachers cheating in Chicago public schools. To avoid the risk of getting fired or getting penalty by the government for low test scores, many teachers chose to cheat and inflate their students scores. They cheated by allowing the students to have more time during test, giving away answers, and even by changing students’ answers by themselves. In this case, we can see that the schoolteachers are driven by economic incentives. For them, moral and social incentives are not as strong as economic incentives. Similar cheating can be seen in sumo wrestling. In Japan, sumo wrestling is a very popular sports and the high-ranked wrestlers get great honor. Also, among sumo wrestlers, their rank determines their salary, reputation, how they are treated, and even how much he gets to eat and sleep. Because they are so desperate for higher rank, the incentive for cheating is very pow erful. In the crucial matches that determines sumo wrestler’s ranking, they cheat byShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Book Freakonomics By Steven D. Levitt1639 Words   |  7 PagesFreakonomics written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Copyright, 2005 by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. A non-fiction book about the intertwining discourses of pop culture and economics. Steven David Levitt is an American economist who is well known for his work that specifically focuses on crime, and the connection between legalized abortion and the effect it has on crime rates. Mr. Levitt is currently the â€Å"William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics† at theRead MoreFreaky Economics Essay1321 Words   |  6 PagesEconomics; is an important subject to understand the workings of finances. The common definition of economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution and consumption of goods. Freakonomics, the title of this b ook has the reader wondering what this book is about. From the title and even the cover picture it is clear it is not your average text book on economics. Yet, the authors have collected data and analyzed it to come to their conclusions on some unusual hypothesesRead MoreIs Forgiving Student Loan Debt A Good Idea?1227 Words   |  5 PagesShe needs to relate this claim back to her thesis. With the amount of money that is vanishing, it would not simply be back into the economy in a split second. If a one-time bailout of student loan debt is a legitimate thing to do, â€Å"someone who has $50,000 in debt forgiven isn’t likely to pump all those dollars back into the economy in a short amount of time,† said Webley. She paraphrased a statement from a person named Justin Wolfers on the Freakonomics blog that â€Å"a much more effective stimulus†¦wouldRead MoreFactors That Affect the Academic Performance of the Student Using Computer11401 Words   |  46 Pagesstudents, fewer teachers have yet explored the use of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) as an additional course delivery method to the traditional methods of classroom instruction (Jonassen, 1995a, b). At the time of the writing of this thesis, however, the use of online asynchronous learning spaces is becoming more widespread even in the K-12 domain. As a teacher of secondary students with very mixed academic abilities, I am often seeking ways to improve student performance across all