...Being a drug dealer may mean putting your life on the line to try and make enough money to live your dream life. This is almost the exact opposite for the majority of drug dealers across the world. In this third chapter of Freakonomics, the book de-bunks the drug dealer myth of becoming wealthy selling drugs. Through the pyramid of the drug ring, broken down through this chapter will analyze and explain why drug dealers still live with their mom. A man by the name of Sudhir Venkatesh goes behind enemy lines for his research on explaining why drug dealers make little to no money. Sudhir was born in India and grew up in New York. He went to school in Chicago and was interested in social growth. In his experiment he joins up with a crack selling gang in Chicago to go in depth on...
Words: 533 - Pages: 3
...Freakonomics Key Terms : Conventional Wisdom : Explanations generally accepted as true. Correlation : Relationship between two or more things which change (variables) and can be described mathematically; Refers to how closely sets of information or data are related. For example: Smoking has a high correlation with lung cancer. Freakonomics : Study of economics based on the principle of incentives. Incentives means of urging to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing. :A The Authors identify three kinds: 1. Economic Incentivesperson responds in the marketplace – 2. Social Incentivesmotivate people to respond in a certain way – because they care (or are worried) about how they’ll be viewed by others 3. Moral Incentivesappeal to a person’s sense of right versus wrong – Informational Asymmetry : Situation in which one party has more information than the other party. Snob Effect : The desired to own exclusive or unique goods. The demand increases as the price increases. Freakonomics provided me with concrete illustrations of how unconventional methods of data collection and analysis are often necessary to make sense of the world. Knowing what to measure (and how to measure) data makes a complicated world ... somewhere less complicated. As I read the dumbstrucking Freakonomics, I found this quote, “If you learn how to look at data in the right way, you can explain riddles that otherwise might have seemed impossible...
Words: 1657 - Pages: 7
...What is Freakonomics? Freakonomics is an interesting book that evokes a thoughtful and provocative analysis of human motivation and modern living. It shows you a common world through a totally different pair of lens. The author uses the raw data of economics to ask imaginative questions while it forces the reader to think cleverly and divertingly of the answers. His approach to economics was done in a very unconventional way- as a smart, curious explorer parallel to Christopher Columbus when he discovered the Americas. There is not one common theme in Freakonomics, instead the book is structured around four essential ideas: incentives are the basis of modern life, conventional wisdom is often wrong, dramatic effects often have distant (even subtle) causes, and experts use their information advantage to serve their own interests. Each consequent chapter is titled with an intriguing question, such as, “what do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common” and then answers are provided based on Levitt’s economic research and analysis. One of the primary points emphasized in Freakonomics is that economics is essentially the study of incentives; why people behave in certain ways and how they benefit from the things that they do. The authors explain that there are mainly three varieties of incentives that motivate human decision-making: moral, financial, and social. When people make decisions based on moral incentives they are doing what they feel is “the right thing...
Words: 854 - Pages: 4
...of Economics Illinois State University PREFACE Introduction Welcome to the Student’s Guide to Freakonomics! The purpose of this guide is to help you better understand the analyses presented in Freakonomics by providing a sort of “bridge” between the material covered in a traditional course in economic principles and topics addressed in what we consider to be one of the most fascinating books we’ve encountered in economics literature. Many students view economics as a very difficult, if not impossible, course to master.This perception is, however, most likely based on observations of the experiences of other students who did not apply the proper approach to learning economics. In many courses, simple memorization is enough. In economics, we would argue, this is not the case.While you need to understand the meaning of basic terms and concepts, you also need to be able to apply economic concepts in specific situations. In other words, you need to develop the ability to think like an economist.The authors of Freakonomics certainly show the reader how to do just that.The material presented here is intended to make the job a little easier. Organization of the Student’s Guide We organized the material in this guide to help you identify the key points in each chapter and check to ensure that you have a firm grasp of the key concepts presented in the book.The first section of each chapter in this guide consists of an overview that highlights the major topics and points presented in the...
Words: 11951 - Pages: 48
...They Say/I Say Journal 1 Subject: Freakonomics Chapter 1 “School Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers” They Say: In this chapter the author, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, define the economic as root to pursue of incentives. The author define an incentive as “a means of urging people to do more of a good thing of a bad thing”. Sometimes these incentives are so irresistible that people are driven to obtain them through a bad behavior. In addition the authors describe some circumstances of cheating. There is an analysis of data to detect some cheating patterns. The most prominent cases are included the Chicago public schools teacher who changed answers on their students’ test, and Japanese sumo wrestlers who conspired to discard certain high stakes matches. Basically the main point of this chapter analyzed different scenarios to explain that humans always are looking for incentives. These incentive are categorized as economic, social, and moral. All of this, are explained in a different scenarios starting with the situation of the day care and finalized with the business man who run a bagel business. The author focused at the end explaining that humans are honest even when no one is watching them. I say: I am completely agreed with the ideas described by the author in this chapter related how human behavior depends of the incentives. To better understanding of these behavior the author states that: “economists love incentives....The typical economist believes the world...
Words: 434 - Pages: 2
...MIGUEL, Karl Ann D. INTSOCI C33 Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner Introduction: The Hidden Side of Everything There are several things required to understand the world through economics: first, knowing the incentives of all parties; second, realizing that conventional wisdom is usually wrong; third, understanding that most effects have subtle and distant causes and the most obvious is often the wrong one; fourth, specialists like salesman and lawyers use obscure knowledge to achieve their own ends and the internet helps to erode this advantage by making knowledge more freely available to people; lastly, data is invaluable to understanding the world. Chapter 1: What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? People all learn to respond to incentives, whether positive or negative from the outset of life. An incentive is simply a means of urging people to do more of a good thing and less of a bad thing. There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social and moral. Economic incentive is something material or tangible; moral is based of self-judgments; social is terribly powerful as it depicts what other people think of you resulting from your own actions or choices. Any incentive is inherently a trade-off; whatever the incentive, whatever the situation, dishonest people will try to gain an advantage by whatever means necessary. Cheating is a natural act getting more for less. The government required the High-Stakes Testing as part of...
Words: 2576 - Pages: 11
...by Allen, Brownlee, Haskins and Lynch, Pearson-Prentice Hall, ISBN #0-13-570425-1 Freakonomics: A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Harper Collins, ISBN#0-06-073132-X ✓ University Communication with Students All email communication from the University is sent to the student’s wsu.edu address. Please be sure that you have set up the link to forward your personal email address (aol, hotmail, etc.) or you will miss announcements and information that is very important to you. This is the email I use to contact you regarding class matters. If you change your email address, be sure to update again. ✓ Catalog Course Description with Prerequisitites 3credits: Managerial evaluation of budgeting, cost accounting, and financial analysis techniques; their utilization in control of operations. (pre-requisite acctg 550 or equivalent). Please note that pre-requisites are strictly enforced and that students will be disenrolled if they do not have course pre-requisites). ✓ Instructor Course Objectives Knowledge and Skill Expectations: Students should have the knowledge and skill level to record economic events, read and analyze financial information through the topic areas covered in Acctg 550. Overview of Course Purpose: This course will integrate fundamental cost accounting topics with strategic analysis to demonstrate how accounting information is used within an organization to make business...
Words: 3504 - Pages: 15
...summary Levitt and Dubner analyze various approaches or strategies parents exercise on their offspring in attempt to form perfectly obedient children in Chapter 5 of Freakonomics. Such approaches include Head Start, regular museum visits, speaking English in the home, taking off work during the child’s early years, spanking, adopting, reading bedtime stories, having books available throughout the home, educational television shows, and getting involved in the PTA. Copious amounts of so-called “parenting experts” strongly stand their ground and influence worrisome parents with fear. However, according to Peter Sandman, experts and their plausible information cause parents to overreact to a number of these “fears.” In his words, the “outrage outweighs the hazard” (Hamilton, 2004, 153). For instance, terrorist attacks are deemed far more treacherous than heart disease. Sandman refers to his “control” principle when supporting the fact...
Words: 966 - Pages: 4
...Download Infographic: Must Read Books in Data Science / Analyt… Resources - Data Science, Analytics and Big Data discussions Home Blog Jobs Trainings Learning Paths 21/07/15 8:48 pm j ADVERTISEMENT Download Infographic: Must Read Books in Data Science / Analytics books data_science datavisualization Manish ! Data Hackers 28d Hey there ! You can think of this infographic as an ideal list of books to have in bookshelf of every data scientist / analyst. These books cover a wide range of topics and perspective (not only technical knowledge), which should help you become a well rounded data scientist. If you have other suggestions, please feel free to add them below: Books related to data science decisioning: When Genius Failed: The Rise and fall of Long-Term Capital Management A fast paced thriller, this book not only brings out how you can compete on data based decisions, but also why you need to keep human behavior in mind while taking decisions on data. Scoring Points: How Tesco Continues to Win Customer Loyalty this book brings out some of the practical challenges faced by Tesco and how they overcame them to create one of the biggest success story of customer loyalty. The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction . From the stock market to the poker table, from earthquakes to the economy, Nate Silver takes us on an enthralling insider’s tour of the high-stakes world of forecasting, showing how we can use information...
Words: 1265 - Pages: 6
...Super Freakonomics: Short Essay questions Chapter 1: Describe the evidence that suggests that Chicago prostitutes engage in price discrimination. In addition, explain why it is possible for this particular instance of price discrimination to be successful. There is a couple of different things that directly show how Chicago prostitutes engage in price discrimination, the first is by skin color. The book directly says “Prostitutes do not charge all customers the same price. Black customers, for instance, pay on average about $9 less per trick than white customers, while Hispanic customers are in the middle” (p 35.) Another big one is giving police officers “freebies”. Some of the more high class prostitutes were able to discriminate even further by raising their rates on people they didn’t like, while still offering the previous rate to favorite customers, this is represented in the book by the statement “She grandfathered in her favorite clients at the old rate but told her less-favorite clients that an hour now cost $400” (p 54.) The last big one to mention is price discrimination for drug dealers, or price negotiations for drugs. Prostitutes are savvy businesswomen who know how to price discriminate very successfully to get what they want. Many factors contribute to why prostitutes are able to pull off such successful price discrimination. The book outlines the two major conditions that must be met to allow price discrimination to be possible in business, customers...
Words: 1727 - Pages: 7
...FREAKONOMICS A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Revised and Expanded Edition Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner CONTENTS AN EXPLANATORY NOTE In which the origins of this book are clarified. vii PREFACE TO THE REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION xi 1 INTRODUCTION: The Hidden Side of Everything In which the book’s central idea is set forth: namely, if morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work. Why the conventional wisdom is so often wrong . . . How “experts”— from criminologists to real-estate agents to political scientists—bend the facts . . . Why knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, is the key to understanding modern life . . . What is “freakonomics,” anyway? 1. What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? 15 In which we explore the beauty of incentives, as well as their dark side—cheating. Contents Who cheats? Just about everyone . . . How cheaters cheat, and how to catch them . . . Stories from an Israeli day-care center . . . The sudden disappearance of seven million American children . . . Cheating schoolteachers in Chicago . . . Why cheating to lose is worse than cheating to win . . . Could sumo wrestling, the national sport of Japan, be corrupt? . . . What the Bagel Man saw: mankind may be more honest than we think. 2. How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? 49 In which it is argued that nothing is more powerful than information,...
Words: 105214 - Pages: 421
...CHAPTER 1 The importance of understanding consumer behaviour CHAPTER CONTENTS Introduction Defining Consumer Behaviour Consumer Behaviour in Context Consumer Behaviour and the Marketing Mix Consumers and Relationship Marketing Consumers and Marketing Planning Antecedents of Consumer Behaviour Neuroscience Psychology Sociology Summary Key points Review questions Case study revisited: Pizza Case study: Center Parcs Further reading References LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter you should be able to: Explain how the study of consumer behaviour has evolved. Show how consumer behaviour relates to marketing decision-making. Explain why relationships are harder to establish in business-to-consumer situations than in business-to-business situations. Describe the scope and nature of psychology and sociology. Describe the scope and nature of anthropology. Describe the relationship of economics with the study of consumer behaviour. Explain the role of exchange in improving people’s welfare. Explain how the terms ‘luxury’ and ‘necessity’ relate to consumer behaviour. Introduction Customer Someone who makes the decision to buy a product 01-Blythe-Ch-01-Part-1.indd 3 Every day we buy things. We exchange our money for goods and services, for our own use and for the use of our families: we choose things we think will meet our needs on a day-to-day basis, and we occasionally make buying decisions which will affect our lives for ...
Words: 11342 - Pages: 46
... Content Page 4 6 8 13 15 15 15 17 17 18 19 21 23 24 26 28 30 32 34 35 37 39 41 43 44 46 48 49 50 51 53 54 55 57 58 59 60 62 63 63 64 66 67 69 72 74 75 76 77 79 80 82 The Programme The Degree Assessment Quality Assurance Admission Procedures Erasmus Study in BABE Programme Administrative Issues Course Descriptors Mathematics Introductory Microeconomics Introduction to Sociology Current Issues of the European and Global Economy Academic Writing Introduction into Business Introductory Macroeconomics Introduction into Economic Analysis Economics of Integration Information Technology Intermediate Microeconomics Issues in Macroeconomic Policy Mathematical Economics Statistics Regional Economics Introduction to Strategic Management Banking and Finance International Business Law Research Proseminar Accounting Managerial Economics International Economics Intermediate Macroeconomics Econometrics Research Methods Social Policy Game Theory Public Finance Investment Analysis BA Seminar Electives Financial Accounting Monetary Theory and Policy - The Impact of Global Crisis Principles of Marketing The World Economy – Retrospective View The Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) Sector Economics of Telecommunication Demography and Economics of Contemporary European Migration Personal Finance in Practice (with Excel) Contemporary China - Genesis and Background of Chinese “Economic Miracle" Negotiations and Communication Tax Policy Energy Security and Climate Protection in The European Union Risk...
Words: 47436 - Pages: 190
...INTRODUCTION TO MACROECONOMICS E202 $ ¥ Dr. David A. Dilts Department of Economics Doermer School of Business and Management Sciences Indiana-Purdue University-Fort Wayne June 1, 1993 Revisions: May 1994, December 1995, July 1996, November, 2000, May 2003, May 2006 PREFACE This Course Guide was developed in part because of the high cost of college textbooks, and in part, to help organize students’ studying by providing lecture notes together with the reading assignments. This Guide is provided to the student online at the Department of Economics website. Jayla Heller, the Department’s secretary has been kind enough to go through all of the frustration and hard work to put the guide in the appropriate format and put it online. To her goes my gratitude. The department, neither school, nor the professor make anything whatsoever from this Guide. In fact, the department’s budget and the professor’s own resources are used in the writing of the Guide, and the numerous draft copies that are produced in the revisions of this document. Like the sign in the Mom and Pop bait shop on Big Barbee Lake says, “This is a non-profit organization, wasn’t planned to be – it just worked out that way.” Well, actually it was planned to be a non-profit enterprise in this case. The professor also wishes to acknowledge the fact that several students have proposed changes, improvements, caught errors, and helped to make this document more useful as a learning tool. Naturally, any errors of omission...
Words: 56767 - Pages: 228
...More Than a Numbers Game A Brief Histor y of Accounting Thomas A. King John Wiley & Sons, Inc. More Than a Numbers Game More Than a Numbers Game A Brief Histor y of Accounting Thomas A. King John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Thomas A. King. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability...
Words: 65244 - Pages: 261
