...Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner focuses on our economy and the study of incentives. The two authors discuss comparisons that seem so foreign such as “What do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?” and “How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real-estate agents?” Questions like these stir up the novel and essentially unravel the untold stories of life and consumption. Core economic principals are discovered within each story of the book. The title Freakonomics in itself has a humorous connotation with the combination of two words: freak and economics. Freak, by definition, means abnormality or oddity and most people might familiarize economics solely with finance or commerce. However, Levitt and Dubner break this common misconception and reveal how to world actually works, as opposed to distinguishing everything with morality and how everyone thinks the world should work. Book Report The first major concept that Freakonomics explores is incentives and how our economy revolves around it. We explore our incentives during our everyday lives in school, work, and even relationships. The perspective this book gives on incentives allows its readers to see the choices that people make more critically in order to determine which incentives are motivating them best. Another major concept explored throughout Freakonomics is information. Information can be used and abused the same ways money can. Levitt and Dubner explain how one person can hold more information...
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...The Freak of Names Do you ever wonder if your name defines you as a person in life? Do you think your name can cause a problem in the work force? Or do you live out your name that you are given? Or even living in a different atmosphere? There is separation between white and black people names that is defined as “Cultural Segregation” (Levitt) (Freakonomics ). There are names that are different between African American and Caucasians but, none of these shouldn’t define you as a person or create a image for yourself. First, does your name cause a problem in the work force? According to Levitt and Dubner, they created a experiment by typing up 5000 of the same resume and just changing the names to half caucasion names to the other half African American names. The resume were sent out to companies acrossed from Chicago and New York. 33% African American names are less likely to get an interview then a Caucasian name. When someone is looking for a job with a Casucasin name in ten weeks they are most likely to get a job but if an African American would take fifteen weeks being unemployed. (Freakonomics ) When African Amercians can get an opportunity in the work force they generally earn less compared to a Caucasians person. As giving your child a name that is “Uneek” can be harder for them in the work force. Also, can living in a different society or coming from a different background change the view on your name? In the 50s African American had basic names such as John...
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...Economist Steven D Levitt, in his book Freakonomics, published in 2005, addresses the topic of incentives, decision-making, and parenting, and challenges readers to think critically about what goes on in the world around them while applying tools of economics to their lives. Levitt supports his argument by showing examples of real life incentives, such as schoolteachers making their classes look better, or sumo wrestlers purposely blowing matches for bribes, and even financial incentives, such as making parents pay a fine for every minute they were late picking their kids up from day care. His purpose is to make readers understand that things aren't always what they seem like. For instance, your parents might tell you that watching TV can have...
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...Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner "(Feldman wondered if perhaps the executives cheated out of an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.What he didn't consider is that perhaps cheating was how they got to be executives.)... If morality represents the way we would like the world to work and economics represents how it actually does work, then the story of Feldman's bagel business lies at the very intersection of morality and economics"(46)Levitt, and Dubner. Levitt implements his first rhetorical device, diction, through the use of the phrase "overdeveloped sense of entitlement", this shows that the belief of the author, was that they were stealing simply because they felt that their higher social status made it ok. However the connotation that comes with the word "entitlement" under the circumstances it is used makes me think of more of a snobby stereotypical movie rich persona, such that in a typical celebrity matter they feel that they are in fact above the law.The second thing he does is use italics to emphasize the word "be", the purpose of emphasizing be in this case is to show the contrasting in between his ideas, and of the Feldman, the business man. It also seems to shine an eerie light on to the fact that perhaps, the cheating to get ahead in the corporate ladder was the same principle they applied to stealing the bagels, it was ok, as long as they didn't get caught. Levitt's final rhetorical device was a metaphor when he says " If morality represents the...
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...In the novel Freakonomics, Dubner and Levitt approach the controversial topic of lynching through the use of blunt and belittling diction to unintentionally “make of light of” lynching. The origins, development and history of the Ku Klux Klan are vividly described throughout the beginning of the chapter as well as the multiple hateful actions that were performed that lead to the “trend” of lynching. When the amount of lynching victims are compared to infant mortality, it distracts the audience from the fact that lynching was a hateful crime and it slightly minimizes the issue. There is a shift from the topic of lynching to the topic of infant mortality,“Compare the 281 victims of lynchings in the 1920’s to the number of black infants who died...
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...Is there a causal link between the drastic crime-drop , at the turn of the millennium , to the remote event of the legalization of abortion in the mid 90 's ? Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner would have us believe , in their movie Freakonomics , that there is a statistically definable and clear relationship between the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v .Wade and the reduction of criminality In brief , they posit that the legalization of abortion in the 70 's set into motion a chain of causal events which would eventually lead to a dramatic decrease in criminal incidence and crime rates in the last twenty years . The argument is buttressed by the fact that the statistical data in the rise of legalized abortion appear to militate criminal incidence throughout the country . In the decision of the Court , the majority believe that the woman has the right to decide whether or not to continue with the pregnancy .However , such right is not absolute since the moment the first trimester ends , the State acquires the right to prevent or intervene with such decision by the mother because of a valid compelling state interest . At any rate , the Supreme Court reveals that this will help reduce the incidence of bearing unwanted children and causing more trauma for both the mother and the child in the long run . Levitt and Dubner , on the hand , added color into this line of argument by stretching the correlation of unwanted children to either the rise or fall of crime. The less...
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...Summary In Freakonomics chapter three, a brave college student goes to answer a question many people do not think about which is shown in the title of the chapter, “Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?” The answer ends up being that family is extremely important to the drug gangs even if they aren’t blood relative, and Sudhir Venkatesh basically gets adopted by a gang he stumbled upon.In the beginning the authors when through the use of conventional wisdom with economics, advertising, and incentives. Response Sudhir Venkatesh was sent into the poorest, black neighborhoods in Chicago, and had to convince the people there to answer his survey even if some of it could be considered blatantly disrespectful. The first question proved just how much danger he could have been in “How do you feel about being black and poor ( Dubner & Levvitt, 2005, p. 90).” This is like if some fancy rich, big city guy came to Scott County, and asked how the people feel about being considered white, poor, and redneck. A lot of people would be offended by this because this would be rude even if the statement was true, they would not want to admit it or let others know about it. The money that the gangsters would provide to the family of a killed member is much like a life insurance policy the family gets money with almost every circumstance. A life insurance policy pays the family of the deceased so much money for so many years, and the gangsters did the same. This showed that family was...
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...Asia Shelton Mrs. Langstaff Hnrs Economics Critical Analysis March 11, 2013 Freaky Economimcs Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? Why am I asking you all of these seemingly irrelevant questions? Well I’ll tell you why, because to economists Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, these questions aren’t irrelevant at all. “The conventional wisdom is often wrong” (Levitt Dunbar 14) so Levitt looks at the economy in a very unconventional way. Often times, the study of economics is seen as dry, boring, and consisting of mind numbing numbers, uninteresting financial trends, and statistics. Yet in Freakonomics Levitt and Dubner make it interesting, and dare I say, funny. They show us that economics is the study of incentives and how people get what they want, or need, and especially when other people want or need the same thing. I’m very fond of the idea that there is no one cause for an effect. I believe that there are multiple tiny causes that build up over time and then suddenly, and oddly to many people’s surprise, you have this looming and terrible effect. So I was a bit put off at how Levitt only offers one cause for some of the arguments he tries to make. He even says himself in the introduction that, "If you learn how to look at data in the right way, you can explain riddles that otherwise might have seemed impossible...
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...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...
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... What is Freakonomics? Freakonomics is an interesting book that evokes the human motivation and mind. It shows you a common world, through a different perspective and view. The authors approach to economics is done in an unconventional way, more like a curios explorer. Freakonomics does not have one common theme, it is based on 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 informational advantage to serve their own interest. The primary point in Freakonomics is that economics is essentially the study of incentives, explains why people behave the way they do and how they benefit from what they do. There are three basic types of incentives: economic, social, and moral. What is an incentive? Incentives, are the corner stones of modern life. Incentives are also the things that encourages someone to do something that they would not normally do. The three types of incentives that motivate our decisions are moral, financial and social. When someone makes a decision based on moral incentive they are doing what they feel is right. When a financial incentive exist the persons decision is based on money and social incentives is when someone makes a decision based on group norms or the expectations we have. An example of one of these incentives would be when a group of kids are playing a board game and they are losing. They will most likely begin...
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...The book Freakonomics builds story around one central theme which is in real world, we people have different perceptions about various events and we would like the world to work in a particular way but the fact is, economics is the ultimate truth that shows us how things actually work out and which are the factors cause what events. The book has also various “Break the Myth” moments whereas the authors have explained why some simple looking things are not that much simple and they have proved some of the basic perceptions that we have. For example, in the 1990s the crime rate, especially of violent crimes like murders, rapes etc. was soaring like anything in United States of America. The experts including the then president of US Mr. Clinton predicted that this crime rate is expected to climb even higher in upcoming days. Suddenly, the crime rate fell and by the year of 2000, it fell by more than 50% as compared to what it was used to be. The experts, as usual, came up with their set of theories for this and said all this happened due to smart policing strategies, better economic conditions and strict gun control laws. These theories were faulty and it did not consider a major factor that has helped this crime rate to come down. The reason was a lady named Norma McCorvey, who fought for her abortion in the US Supreme Court and ultimately from then onwards, US court made abortion legal across the country. This helped in downsizing the pool of children who would have born in the...
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...QA Concept Introducing LoadRunner • Why should you automate performance testing? • What are the LoadRunner components? • Understanding LoadRunner Terminology • What is the load testing process? • Getting Familiar with HP Web Tours • Application Requirements The Power of LoadRunner • Creating the Load Test • Running the Load Test • Monitoring the Load Test • Analyzing Results Building Scripts • Introducing the Virtual User Generator (VuGen) • How do I start recording user activities? • Using VuGen’s Wizard mode • How do I record a business process to create a script? • How do I view the script? Playing Back Your Script • How do I set the run-time behavior? • How do I watch my script running in real time? • Where can I view information about the replay? • How do I know if my test passed? • How do I search or filter the results? Solving Common Playback Problems • Preparing HP Web tours for playback errors • How do I work with unique server values? Preparing a Script for Load Testing • How do I measure business processes? • How do I emulate multiple users? • How do I verify Web page content? • How can I produce debugging information? • Did my test succeed? Creating a Load Testing Scenario • Introducing the LoadRunner Controller • How do I start the Controller? • The Controller window at a glance • How do I modify the script details? • How do I generate a heavy load? • How do I emulate real load...
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...Preparing Business Scenario Analyses The following general guidelines may be used in preparing for an oral or written business scenario analysis and presentation. There may be several feasible courses of action regarding the solution to any case. It is more important to concern yourself with the process of problem definition and isolation, analysis, and evaluation of alternatives, and the choice of one or more recommendations, rather than trying to find a single answer. Very often, the right answer is the one that you can propose, explain, defend, and make work. • The Process of Analyzing a Case 1. Read and study the scenario thoroughly and efficiently. Read the scenario once for familiarity, noting issues that come to the forefront. Read the scenario again. Determine all the facts, making notes about symptoms of problems, root problems, unresolved issues, and roles of key players. Watch for issues beneath the surface. 2. Isolate the problem(s). Get a feel for the overall environment by putting yourself in the position of one of the key players. Seek out the pertinent issues and problems. 3. Analyze and evaluate alternatives. a. Once the problems and issues are isolated, work at gaining a better understanding of causes. In what area of the unit do the problems exist? Why? What caused them? Examine and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the unit’s processes (e.g., planning, communication), human behaviors, and/or exhibits (e.g., financial statements,...
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...PEST Analysis One way of planning your business is to undertake a PEST analysis.1 PEST analysis involves looking at the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural and Technological factors that could affect your business. Every business needs to consider a range of external forces in order to take decisions. For many people imagination is very limited and is coloured solely by their own experience and personal beliefs. This can lead to wish fulfilment or a refusal to see reality or recognise the critical changes that are happening in the world around them. It can also lead to grabbing short-term solutions that, if they do not exacerbate problems, certainly ignore the longer term. In the business world pressure is often applied to take decisions quickly, acting on judgement and instinct rather than careful analysis. There are many driving forces in the external environment that might impact on your business. These can be categorised as: • Social; • Technological; • Economic; • Environmental; and • Political. Social forces Social forces include, for example, changing demography and education, etc. The population in Western Europe is relatively static, but the age bands are changing. The number of older people, for example, is growing rapidly. Technological forces Technological forces are changing dramatically quickly. What effects will this have on your production, marketing and distribution plans? Depending on your market, technology might either raise or lower entry barriers...
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...Fall 2015: Industry Analysis in Emerging Markets Your role in this analysis is to work with your team and to look at emerging technologies. From autonomous drones to emergent AI to 3D printers, you are going to research and get a better understanding of our fast-approaching technological future. Scientific American compiled the Top 10 List of Emerging Technologies for 2015. You can start here, but you are not limited to these technologies. You must choose an emerging industry, and will analyze the history of this technology and its industry, the trajectories of the technology, the key competitors, and the trends in the market. The end goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the industry, the competitive landscape, emerging trends to watch in the future, and an overall assessment as to the attractiveness of this industry. Your final deliverable for this project will be an in-class presentation, due April 26th. 1) What SIC/NAICS code does your industry fall under? 2) Describe your industry- a. Provide a brief history of your industry. (You may use a timeline in a separate appendix) b. List and describe the characteristics of the products your industry offers in the marketplace. c. Who are the key competitors in the industry? d. What are the main differences between the products offered by key competitors? e. What strengths & weaknesses (capabilities, complementary resources, related intellectual property, etc.)...
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