Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Author: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Synopsis by Faisal Quaiyyum Inan

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Synopsis:

According to the authors, Freakonomics is a book that shows the application of economic theories in very diverse aspects which are not usually covered by 'traditional' economists. Without any confusion, this book is one of the most-read economics books, read widely by students and scholars of any discipline. Interestingly, this book has gained not only positive but also negative feedback. 

Quoting from the official synopsis of this book, "Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work."

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In this book, Levitt shows himself as a social scientist who likes to use microeconomic theories in very unusual areas that caught his interest. The explored areas of this book are the effects of parenting on children, nominative determinism (the socio-economic mechanism of naming children), information control, the economics of drug dealing, the role of legalized abortion in reducing crimes, and so on. However, while reading this book, it should be kept in mind that these two authors have demonstrated their thoughts in accordance with the American society and cultures. These may vary largely depending on the structure of readers' society. In those cases, it is highly suggested to just take the insights and make the best use of this food for thoughts to make things more relevant.

While this book is fun to read, the critics of this book have often raised their eyebrows about the strength of statistical validation of the hypothetical stories and the hypotheses. A group of critics think of this book as a book of applying statistics, not economics, in very unique aspects. 

Nonetheless, before taking a side, a reader should first read this book because of its thought-provoking nature. For further exploration, the reader can visit the official blog of 'Freakonomics', maintained by a team that includes these two authors too. The link to the blog is: 'https://freakonomics.com/'. 

Introductory knowledge in descriptive and inferential statistics, and in microeconomics can make this book a lot easier to comprehend. It is, in fact, highly recommended to do so.