October 9, 2017 It should surprise no one, and delight everyone, that Richard Thaler has won this year’s Nobel in economics. Congratulations! Thaler is a big reason I personally got interested in economics. (I’ve known him quite a bit longer than I’ve known Steve Levitt.) He is everything to be admired in a scholar and […]
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Calling All Music-Industry Insiders and the Economists Who Love Them – Freakonomics June 26, 2017 The Princeton economist Alan Krueger — he led the Council of Economic Advisers under Obama, and his research has been featured several times on Freakonomics.com — is among a group of scholars launching a new endeavor. It’s called the Music Industry Research […]
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December 20, 2016 By Freakonomics How can we at Freakonomics help you during the holidays? Here’s a few ideas: 1. We can provide inspiration for gifts for the “homo economicus” in your life. 2. When you’re making your year-end donations, we can help you consider the evidence for which programs work, and which don’t. 3. […]
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November 1, 2016 A contestant tries to wow host Stephen J. Dubner and panelists Sam Kass, Gretchen Rubin and Zeke Emanuel. (Photo: Lucy Sutton.) A while back, we tried out a new idea on a special edition of Freakonomics Radio — a game show we called Tell Me Something I Don’t Know. You might remember […]
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April 28, 2016 In our recent Freakonomics Radio episode “How to Become Great at Just About Anything,” we spoke with K. Anders Ericsson, a research psychologist who has spent more than 30 years studying expert performers in many fields — music, sports, chess, surgery, teaching, writing, and more. Ericsson’s recent book is called Peak: Secrets from […]
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Win Free Tickets to See Dubner on Stage in Brooklyn on January 14 – Freakonomics January 7, 2016 When Stephen Dubner’s new podcast Question of the Day launched in August, it immediately shot to No. 1 on the iTunes chart. Last month it was selected as one of iTunes “Best of 2015.” (You can subscribe here.) Now […]
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November 2, 2015 One of the best things about being a journalist is getting to ask questions. Stephen Dubner has been doing this for years, accumulating fascinating bits of knowledge, hidden insights, and wild stories. By now he knows at least a little bit about a lot of things. Dubner has a friend who’s equally curious […]
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October 28, 2015 Many people have written many nice things to us over the years. (Of course some people have written some not-so-nice things too.) But the following is my favorite, or at least my new favorite: Good afternoon Stephen, I am a psychologist by education and spend my professional life as a consultant in […]
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Do We Owe This Boyfriend an Apology? – Freakonomics June 9, 2015 We recently received the following e-mail from Yu Chen, a 29-year-old engineer supervisor in California who moved to the U.S. from China when she was 16. I listened to the episode on diamonds and asked my boyfriend for a gold bar for engagement […]
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May 1, 2015 (Photo: Florian Christoph) Almost a decade of blogging had worn me down, but after some time off, I’m ready to jump back in the saddle. I can’t think of a better way than by embarrassing myself with the annual Kentucky Derby predictions! I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about […]
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Read an Early Excerpt from When to Rob a Bank – Freakonomics April 16, 2015 In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Freakonomics comes this curated collection from the most readable economics blog in the universe. When Freakonomics was first published, its authors, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, started a blog — and they’ve kept it up. The writing […]
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March 31, 2015 In a new working paper, Roland Benabou, Davide Ticchi, and Andrea Vindigni follow up their earlier paper which found “a robust negative association between religiosity and patents per capita.” Their new paper, “Religion and Innovation” (abstract; PDF), they look at religiosity on the individual level, “examining the relationship between religiosity and a […]
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Should I Work for an “Evil” Company? – Freakonomics March 31, 2015 A reader writes in with a question that is hard to answer. I thought it’d be best to put the question to you, our readers; hopefully you can help him find his way to a good decision. Hello: I am an academic plant […]
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A Would-Be Freakonomist in Kyrgyzstan Needs Your Help – Freakonomics March 30, 2015 From a reader named John Keaney: I just finished your book Think Like a Freak, and I’m trying to use the lessons in the book while I’m in Kyrgyzstan. I’m an undergraduate at University of South Carolina, and I’ve decided to pursue […]
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March 30, 2015 We’ll be putting out a new Freakonomics Radio episode later this week on the use of RCTs (randomized controlled trials) in healthcare delivery. It features the work of the MIT economist Amy Finkelstein and her colleagues at J-PAL, and it includes their analysis of what happened when Oregon expanded its Medicaid coverage. […]
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New Miracle Sleep Aid Discovered! – Freakonomics February 23, 2015 From a podcast listener named Jessica Graham in Sydney, Australia: My name is Jess and for most of my adult life I have been afflicted by various forms of sleeplessness. Would I call it insomnia? I don’t know if it could be classified as clinical […]
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February 11, 2015 My good friend and colleague John List has very ambitious summer plans. We’ve both believed for a long time that the combination of creative economic thinking and randomized experiments has the potential to revolutionize business and the non-profit sector. John and I have worked to foment that revolution through both academic partnerships […]
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February 11, 2015 We’re working on an episode about behavior change — essentially, how to get yourself to do the things you should be doing but often don’t. It revolves around the fascinating research of Katy Milkman at Penn. For example, she and her colleagues have noted a “Fresh Start Effect”: The popularity of New […]
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