SuperFreakonomics is Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's follow-up to Freakonomics, applying economic reasoning to an eclectic mix of subjects: street prostitution, the hunt for terrorists hidden in banking data, the incentives behind climate change and geoengineering, and the gap between how generous people claim to be and how they actually behave in experiments. Weaving together data, interviews, and counterintuitive case studies, the authors argue that people respond to incentives in ways that often defy conventional wisdom and moral intuition. Along the way they profile inventors, economists, and hustlers whose stories illustrate how looking at a problem sideways can turn up an unexpectedly simple, cheap fix.
Books mentioned in SuperFreakonomics (3)
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: “More than thirty-five years later, the horror lived on in The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's groundbreaking book about social behavior, as an example of the "bystander effect," whereby the presence of multiple witnesses at a tragedy can actually inhibit intervention.”
Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott: “In the book Sin in the Second City, Karen Abbott reports that the Everleigh also offered sexual delicacies that weren't available elsewhere—"French" style, for instance, commonly known today as oral sex.”
The Candlemakers' Petition by Frédéric Bastiat: “More than 150 years ago, the French economist Frédéric Bastiat wrote "The Candlemakers' Petition," said to represent the interests of "the Manufacturers of Candles, Tapers, Lanterns, Candlesticks, Street Lamps, Snuffers, and Extinguishers" as well as "the Producers of Tallow."”