Freakonomics

The multi-million bestselling economics book of the century that changed the way we view the world – now with a new foreword, 20 years on

Which is more dangerous: a gun or a swimming pool? Why do drug dealers still live with their mums? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist.

Freakonomics is the groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and award-winning journalist Stephen J. Dubner, that turns the conventional wisdom of economics on is head. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives — how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.

From parenting to crime, sport to politics, fear to traffic jams, asking provocative and profound questions about human motivation, Freakonomics will make you see the familiar world through a completely original lens.

About the Author

Stephen J. Dubner is an award-winning author, journalist, and radio and TV personality. He quit his first career - as an almost-rock-star - to become a writer. He has worked for The New York Times and published three non-Freakonomics books. He lives with his family in New York City.

Steven D. Levitt, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, was awarded the John Bates Clark medal, given to the most influential American economist under the age of forty. He is also a founder of The Greatest Good, which applies Freakonomics-style thinking to business and philanthropy.