Freakonomics

When the Fugitive Is a Family Member: A Guest Post

By Stephen J. Dubner — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:05:26 PDT

Following up on our earlier introductory post about our book on criminal justice and the family, we thought we'd start here with an examination of the same topic that initially sparked our interest in the intersection of criminal justice and the family -- namely, how the law treats persons who refuse to cooperate (or actively interfere) with law enforcement on account of trying to protect a family member.

Calling All Blog Readers (Actually, Only the Smart, Creative, and Hardworking Ones)

By Steven D. Levitt — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:12:42 PDT

My sister Linda is the one who came up with the title Freakonomics for our first book. Probably because of that, ever since she has been obsessed with trying to, in marketing lingo, "extend the Freakonomics brand." Her first idea was the Freakonomics t-shirt. "Everybody will want one of these," she said. Somehow, even though millions of [...]

War Is Over?

By Freakonomics — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:07:34 PDT

The 21st century could represent the end of war as we know it, writes political scientist John Mueller in a new paper for Political Science Quarterly. He notes that there have been no wars between developed nations since 1945, and that other international wars that fit the classic definition - the violent resolution of a [...]

The Case for More Fiscal Stimulus

By Justin Wolfers — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:53:33 PDT

I've been struck recently that as I talk to most economists, they think that the case for a further fiscal stimulus is pretty solid. At least that's what I hear in the hallways and seminar rooms. But that's not what I hear in the media; for some reason the most outspoken economists are the anti-stimulus folks. And so I did a short piece for Public Radio's Marketplace yesterday on the need for more fiscal stimulus. I thought it worth taking a closer look at the main arguments against the stimulus:

The Economics of an Ugly Boyfriend

By Daniel Hamermesh — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:20:55 PDT

Naked self-promotion: the third edition of my book, Economics Is Everywhere (Worth Publishers), has just appeared. It contains little articles like those I have included on this blog (and, no doubt, some of the posts from this blog will be included in the fourth edition). I love many of the stories, but my all-time favorite from among the 700 that have been in the book's various editions combines several basic economic ideas:

Loneliness or Cheap Wine

By Daniel Hamermesh — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:17:56 PDT

I'm alone in Europe, living in an apartment and cooking for myself. I bought a bottle of decent red wine for the remarkably low price of €2.99 and am consuming about one-fourth of it with each dinner (instead of the one-fifth or one-sixth of a bottle I would drink with each dinner at home). Have I substituted toward wine, moving down the demand curve because the price is lower than at home? Or am I drinking more because I am alone and miss my wife? has my demand curve for wine merely shifted out due to my solitary lifestyle?

Polling: What's the Point?

By Freakonomics — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:29:08 PDT

Conor Clarke suggests removing polls from the American political process. Not only are poll results frequently wrong, he argues, but polling "uncomfortably expands the domain of democracy."

When Credit Card Companies Compete, You Win

By Ian Ayres — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:43:52 PDT

Barry Nalebuff and I have a new column in Forbes ("A Market Test for Credit Cards") which criticizes some aspects of the recent credit-card legislation as being too anti-market.

At Least the French Are Honest

By Steven D. Levitt — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:11:10 PDT

After winning a stage of the Tour de France, Frenchman Thomas Voeckler was quoted as saying,

Looking for Someone to Blame?

By Freakonomics — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:54:15 PDT

In an article headlined "The Man Who Crashed the World" Michael Lewis profiles Joe Cassano, the former head of A.I.G.'s Financial Products unit. Lewis interviewed employees at the beleaguered F.P. unit and writes that most believed that "if it hadn't been for A.I.G. F.P. the subprime-mortgage machine might never have been built, and the financial crisis might never have happened."

Quotes Uncovered: Brides and Fruit Flies

By Fred Shapiro — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:09:28 PDT

A while back, I invited readers to submit quotations for which they wanted me to try to trace the origins, using The Yale Book of Quotations and more recent research by me. Hundreds of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week.

"Family Values" and the Law: A Guest Post

By Stephen J. Dubner — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:32:48 PDT

We previously featured some compelling guest posts by the legal scholar Ethan Leib on the subject of friendship and the law. Now he is back, along with his two co-authors on a new book called Privilege or Punish: Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties. This is their first of three posts.

Would You Pay More ...

By Freakonomics — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:16:19 PDT

... for a Sanka ashtray if Luc Sante made up a story about it? Apparently at least a few people would, as Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker found when they launched a project called Significant Objects, where they paired up creative writers with objects bought at garage sales and asked them to make up a story about the objects. Each object is for sale on eBay, where anyone can bid for it.

A SuperFreakonomics Counting Contest

By Stephen J. Dubner — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:05:50 PDT

The mother of all deadlines fast approaches: our new book, SuperFreakonomics, is due to be published on October 20. In the meantime, how about a little contest? Think of it as a guess-the-number-of-jelly-beans-in-a-jar contest except in this case the jar is infinitely expandable, and the jelly beans don't yet exist.

Shopping for Gamblers

By Freakonomics — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:38:34 PDT

How can Swoopo, the online auction site, rake in $2,151 selling a laptop for $35.86? Easy: set an opening price of $0.01 (almost free!), then let each new bidder top the last by only a penny, and extend the auction each time someone places a bid in the final seconds. Oh, and collect $0.60 from each player for each bid they place. The winner of the auction might walk away with a good deal, but the losers will have racked up big fees chasing their sunk costs.