About the Author

Steven D. Levitt teaches economics at the University of Chicago. His idiosyncratic economic research into areas as varied as guns and game shows has triggered debate in the media and academic circles. He recently received the American Economic Association's John Bates Clark Medal, awarded every two years to the best American economist under forty.

Stephen J. Dubner lives in New York City. He writes for The New York Times and the New Yorker, and is the bestselling author of Turbulent Souls and Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper. In August 2003 Dubner wrote a profile of Levitt in The New York Times magazine. The extraodinary response that article received led to a remarkable collaboration.

Reviews

Like Freakonomics, but better ... thrilling ... you are guaranteed a good time ... underneath the dazzle, there is substance too -- Tim Harford Financial Times Levitt is a master at drawing counter-intuitive conclusions ... great fun ... Superfreakonomics travels further than its predecessor -- Tom Standage Sunday Times A humdinger ... Page-turning, politically incorrect and ever-so-slightly intoxicating, like a large swig of tequila The Times

Economist Levitt and journalist Dubner capitalize on their megaselling Freakonomics with another effort to make the dismal science go gonzo. Freaky topics include the oldest profession (hookers charge less nowadays because the sexual revolution has produced so much free competition), money-hungry monkeys (yep, that involves prostitution, too) and the dunderheadedness of Al Gore. There's not much substance to the authors' project of applying economics to all of life. Their method is to notice some contrarian statistic (adult seat belts are as effective as child-safety seats in preventing car-crash fatalities in children older than two), turn it into "economics" by tacking on a perfunctory cost-benefit analysis (seat belts are cheaper and more convenient) and append a libertarian sermonette (governments "tend to prefer the costly-and-cumbersome route"). The point of these lessons is to bolster the economist's view of people as rational actors, altruism as an illusion and government regulation as a folly of unintended consequences. The intellectual content is pretty thin, but it's spiked with the crowd-pleasing provocations-"`A pimp's services are considerably more valuable than a realtor's'" -that spell bestseller. (Nov.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.