Freakonomics lived on the New York Times bestseller list for an astonishing two years. Now authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics--the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. Based on revolutionary research and original studies, SuperFreakonomics promises to once again challenge our view of human behavior and the way the world really works.
Applying their signature economic approach, Levitt and Dubner tackle a new set of provocative questions:
- Behavioral Economics: Why do street prostitutes have more in common with a department-store Santa than you'd think, and what can monkeys teach us about the stock market?
- Counterintuitive Thinking: Explore the real data behind life-and-death decisions, from whether it's safer to walk drunk or drive drunk to why a suicide bomber might buy life insurance.
- Unintended Consequences: Discover how the arrival of cable TV empowered women in rural India and why the invention of the car seat may not be the simple lifesaver we assume it is.
- Cheap and Simple Fixes: From a simple hand-washing protocol that saved thousands of lives to a garden hose that could reverse global warming, learn why the best solutions are often the easiest.
About the Author :
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 forty. He is also a founder of The Greatest Good, which applies Freakonomics-style thinking to business and philanthropy.
Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning journalist and radio and TV personality, has worked for the New York Times and published three non-Freakonomics books. He is the host of Freakonomics Radio and Tell Me Something I Don't Know.
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 since taught English at Columbia, worked for The New York Times, and published three non-Freakonomics books.
Review :
"Jauntier and more assured than the first." - Time magazine
"As one of the most successful writing partnerships in publishing, they make an entirely complementary and logical team in the same way that Jack Spratt and his wife did at the dinner table. Mr. Levitt provides the economist's methodology and number-crunching skills and Mr. Dubner writes it all up so as to make it interesting -- and comprehensible -- to the layman." - Daily Telegraph (London)
"The clever authors of the popular Freakonomics return for the inevitable and equally readable sequel, this time identifying a unifying theme: People respond to incentives. " - USA Today
"Genuinely fascinating." - The Guardian
"Jaunty, entertaining and smart. Levitt and Dubner do a good service by making economics accessible, even compelling." - Kirkus Reviews
"The intriguing, equally funny sequel to the mega-selling Freakonomics." - Sacramento Bee
"This terrific follow-up to the bestseller Freakonomics has a surprising amount in common with its Rick James-inspired title: Both include prostitution; both cover topics you wouldn't normally expect most people to enjoy, but they can't seem to resist here; both are bouncy and lyrical enough to keep you entertained for hours; and both will stay with you for years longer than you would have initially suspected." - The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)
"Entertaining, well-written, and full of surprises and insights....I really liked Freakonomicsand I think SuperFreakonomics is even better...I recommend this book to anyone who reads nonfiction. It is very well written and full of great insights." - Bill Gates
"Thank goodness they are back . . . with wisdom, wit and, most of all, powerful economic insight." - Los Angeles Times
"The idea of SuperFreakonomics...is to do more of what was done before. The book does it nicely." - Chicago Sun-Times
"Like Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics ingeniously and imaginatively renders data so that we are startled to see the unlikely and unforeseeable in what on second glance seems so obvious." - The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
"Intoxicatingly readable." - Washington Post
"An inventive and even useful application of economics to unusual subjects....The strength of this book, as of the original, is in how it applies the time-tested tools of economics in unusual places to turn up surprising conclusions." - BusinessWeek
"Levitt and Dubner passionately argue that 'cheap and simple solutions' could be just around the corner - if only we could be a little more rational." - Time Out London
"Provocative." - BusinessWeek
"Fascinating...An afternoon with Levitt and Dubner's book will transform you into the most interesting person in the room that evening.... its seeds of thought and pulpy ruminations are...sure to stimulate and delight" - National Public Radio
"Takes us on another rollercoaster ride across the terrain of the improbable....Spectacularly interesting, attesting, once again, to the authors' uncanny ability to sift contemporary economic research and cherrypick the really juicy stuff....SuperFreakonomics is a humdinger of a book: page-turning, politically incorrect and ever-so-slightly intoxicating, like a large swig of tequila....It's all a bit freaky, of course - but in a thoroughly enlightening way." - The Times (London)
"Delightful...Messrs. Levitt and Dubner show every sign of being careful researchers, going so far as to send chapter drafts to their interviewees for comment prior to publication.....Part of the genius of Marxism, and a reason for its enduring appeal, is that it fed man's neurotic fear of social catastrophe while providing an avenue for moral transcendence. It's just the same with global warming, which is what makes the clear-eyed analysis in SuperFreakonomics so timely and important. (Now my sincere apologies to the authors for an endorsement that will surely give their critics another cartridge of ammunition.)" - Wall Street Journal
"SuperFreakonomics is written for noneconomists. Using wry humor, the authors explore unexpected areas - and often, a huge economic change turns on a noneconomic hinge...Memorable....Levitt and Dubner's books present a view of the world both fun and profound, in which human choice itself emerges as - superfreaky." - Philadelphia Inquirer
"As in their earlier blockbuster, the University of Chicago economist (Levitt) and the writer (Dubner) roam through human nature teaching how to think like an economist....Intriguing...Brave, bracing and beautifully contrarian. Don't go to the water cooler without it.rave, bracing and beautifully contrarian. Don't go to the water cooler without it." - New York Post
