Freakonomics

"Better Biz" at the Whistle Stop Bakery

By IAN AYRES — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:08 PST

WSHU, a public radio station in Connecticut, is running a six-part "Better Biz" series, where Barry Nalebuff and I react to the challenges of specific businesses.

Emmitt Smith and Me

By STEVEN D. LEVITT — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:30:27 PST

Football great Emmitt Smith was just inducted into the Hall of Fame. I had the great pleasure of playing golf with Emmitt a few years back. It is a round I will never forget.

How About Them (Wrapped) Apples?

By JAMES MCWILLIAMS — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:23:29 PST

Food packaging seems like a straightforward problem with a straightforward solution: there's too much of it; it piles up in landfill; we should reduce it. These opinions are standard among environmentalists, many of whom have undertaken impassioned campaigns to shroud consumer goods-including food-in less and less plastic, cardboard, and aluminum.

Freakonomics Radio an iTunes Hit

By FREAKONOMICS — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:01:34 PST

Friday marked the debut of a Freakonomics podcast, and as of this writing it is the No. 2 podcast on iTunes.

Freakonomics Radio, Super Bowl Edition: What Happens to Your Head, Inside the Helmet, After a Nasty Hit?

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:33:11 PST

As mentioned yesterday, we are launching a podcast, Freakonomics Radio. In the first episode (subscribe at iTunes; or listen now in the player at right), we ask the question "What Do NASCAR Drivers, Glenn Beck, and the Hitmen of the NFL Have in Common?"

Is There an Upside to Poverty?

By FREAKONOMICS — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:00:14 PST

Director Renzo Martens's fascinating and controversial documentary Enjoy Poverty "investigates the emotional and economic value of Africa's fastest-growing and most lucrative export-product." That is: poverty. As he travels throughout the Congo, Martens instructs wedding photographers to try earning more money by photographing malnourished children; he posts a large neon sign reading "Enjoy Poverty" in various villages; and encourages locals to capitalize on their poverty.

What Are the Odds That a Given Cow Will Make It to the Super Bowl?

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:30:31 PST

We blogged last fall about the Book of Odds, an interesting site that generates "odds statements" of all sorts. Now, David Gassko and Ian Stanczyk of the Book of Odds have written a guest post which answers just the kind of question we like to ask around here: What are the odds that a given cow will make it to the Super Bowl?

A Good Reason to Fly Southwest

By DANIEL HAMERMESH — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:00:15 PST

I earned two free one-way coupons on Southwest Airlines. I tried to redeem them for a round-trip flight in March, but there were no coupon seats on the return flight. So I redeemed one coupon, and have one left over. That's a clever strategy by Southwest, as I will now use the other coupon as part of a second round trip.

Introducing Freakonomics Radio: A Podcast About the Hidden Side of Everything

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:58:10 PST

So it is with great pleasure that I announce the launch of Freakonomics Radio, a podcast. We're just finishing up our first episode. It'll be called "What Do NASCAR Drivers, Glenn Beck, and the Hitmen of the NFL Have in Common?" It features interviews with all the people named in the title, along with a good dose of Levitt; I'm the host.

Quotes Uncovered: Sizzling Steaks

By FRED SHAPIRO — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:35:46 PST

Each week, I've been inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent researches. Here is the latest round.

SuperFreakonomics Book Club: Ask Allie the Escort About Her Work and Life

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:00:10 PST

We have finally reached the end of Chapter 1, which brings us to Allie, the high-end escort whom we profile at some length. She has appeared earlier on this blog, answering some of our questions about the Eliot Spitzer affair. Now is your chance to ask Allie some questions of your own about her life and work as an escort.

The Truth About College Plagiarism

By FREAKONOMICS — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:30:32 PST

Despite all the concern over increased plagiarism in the Internet age, concrete figures on the trend are hard to come by. In a new working paper, Brian Jacob (an occasional Levitt co-author) and Thomas Dee conducted a natural field experiment at a "selective post-secondary institution" to shed light on the determinants of student plagiarism.

How to Subsidize a Haiti Donation

By STEPHEN J. DUBNER — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:30:34 PST

Charitable giving, as we've noted here, here, and elsewhere, is a tricky animal. Much of the giving that is considered pure altruism is in fact incentivized by a variety of factors. As we note in SuperFreakonomics, "U.S. citizens are easily the world's leaders in per-capita charitable contributions, but the U.S. tax code is among the most generous in allowing deductions for those contributions."

Are Transportation Planners Smarter Than Mold?

By ERIC A. MORRIS — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:00:19 PST

Transportation planners are a noble and advanced species; all I have met have opposable thumbs, walk upright, and have a reasonable command of fire and language. But the results of a fascinating new experiment reported in the journal Science give us cause to question whether their work would be better performed by primordial slime.

Testing Geoengineering Before It's Needed

By FREAKONOMICS — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:00:37 PST

The SuperFreakonomics chapter on geoengineering solutions to global warming has generated plenty of heat, but scientific and political interest in the concept is on the rise.