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Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
 
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Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance (Hardcover)

by Steven D. Levitt (Author), Stephen J. Dubner (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Allen Lane (20 Oct 2009)
  • ISBN-10: 071399990X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0713999907
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 44 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics
    #1 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology

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Review

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 of a book: page-turning, politically incorrect and ever-so-slightly intoxicating, like a large swig of tequila (The Times )

One of the most important books you’ll read this autumn (GQ )

Levitt and Dubner’s zeal for statistical anomalies is as undimmed as their eye for a good story . . . lie back and let Levitt and Dubner’s bouncy prose style carry you along from one peculiarity to the next (Sunday Telegraph )

There’s material here not just for one conversation, but for several.The authors mash together interesting academic research, surprising historical comparisons . . . and cute factoids (Daily Mail )

[Freakonomics] was fascinating . . . [SuperFreakonomics] is similarly studded with intriguing examples of economic analysis in action (Daily Telegraph )

Entertaining (BBC Focus )


Product Description

Here at last is the long awaited sequel to the international bestselling phenomenon, Freakonomics. Steven Levitt, the original rogue economist, and Stephen Dubner have been working hard, uncovering the hidden side of even more controversial subjects, from charity to terrorism and prostitution. And with their inimitable style and wit, they will take us on another even more gripping journey of discovery. Superfreakonomics will once again transform the way we look at the world.
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (63 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars If it ain't broke..., 23 Oct 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
'Superfreakonomics' is the cumbersomely titled sequel to the bestselling 'Freakonomics' - a book that gave an entertaining overview of microeconomics, and supplied plenty of food for thought. If you enjoyed the first volume, you will undoubtedly enjoy 'SuperFreakonomics'. It is essentially the same book, but with different case studies - if your first book sold over four million copies, why change a winning formula?

Initially I was unimpressed; the first chapter, dealing with prostitution felt like a rehash of the first book, only less interesting. Soon after, things pick up. The sections on emergency medicine and altruism were interesting and ask questions about the way in which we perceive our world. It is these alternate world views that are the 'Freakonomics' books strongest assets. Time and again the authors hold up a hand and say 'but what about...?'

Not everybody will be happy. The authors offer some thoughts on climate change, that go against current thinking, for which they will undoubtedly be pilloried. Of course challenging convention is the point of this book, and I'm sure the authors will welcome the debate. Less happy though, will be road-safety experts. 'Superfreakonomics' reveals that for the drinker, drink-driving is safer than drink-walking. (They do say that a taxi home is much better option still, but considering their findings on altruism, this seems a foolhardy admission.) The section on child safety seats will also cause great consternation, not least amongst child safety seat manufacturers.

Whilst casting doubt on the efficacy of child car seats, the book does ask a singular and important question. Since the primary users of rear seats are children, why aren't they designed with children in mind? Many of the topics covered in 'Superfreakonomics' are distilled down to simple and (with hindsight) obvious questions, and this is part of what makes it a pleasure to read. Another factor, is the lightness of tone, despite being a book about small details, it never becomes bogged down. I would though agree with another reviewer's comments, that the tone used can sometimes grate. It is very chummy and often self-congratulating.

'Superfreakonomics's' strength is also its biggest weakness. To avoid being, dull it only takes a cursory glance at its subject matter. One can't help but wonder what we aren't being told. The authors acknowledge that statistics are easy to fudge, but without doing masses of further reading, it is impossible to judge to what extent the figures have been massaged to back up their suppositions.

That said, the purpose of this book is to provoke debate and stop its readers from accepting everything at face value. I would suggest that this scepticism has to start with 'Superfreakonomics' itself - this is a book that will pose far more questions than it answers, but that is no bad thing. Like its predecessor, 'Superfreakonomics' is an entertaining and thought-provoking book, that deserves to be be read and discussed by as many people as possible.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The law of diminishing returns, 29 Oct 2009
By Davywavy2 - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
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The first book by these authors - freakonomics - was an unexpected success and so it stands to reason that one of the basic rules of economics (that people act in their own perceived best interests) would result in them churning out another in fairly short order.
On the face of it, it's more of the same - applying statistical analysis to everyday life and turning up some results which you felt you always sort-of knew but it's quite nice to see it demonstrated. It's a handy conversation piece in that regard, but the problem this this sequel turns up is that a large chunks of the book feel either underdeveloped in terms of interest (such as the section on spotting potential terrorists through their economic activity - apparently it's possible but the authors can't/won't tell you how, which makes the chapter largely unedifying) or overdeveloped in terms of the personal experience and interests of the authors (such as an interesting piece of supply & demand economics illustrated by Chicago prostitution, which goes off on a long and pointless tangent about a single case which serves little purpose but to show us that the authors interviewed an actual prostitute).

There have been a number of reviews being very rude about the chapter on climate change/global warming, and I don't know enough about the science to know who is right either way. Certainly the chapter didn't seem any worse argued or presented than any other part of the book, but I suspect that Climate Change is one of those subjects which makes normally mild-mannered people get very dogmatic so perhaps it's best to take both the chapter and people's reactions to it with a pinch of salt.

On the face of it, Superfreakonomics is simply more of the same as Freakonomics, but overall less interesting because a lot of the conclusions you could guess yourself if you've read the original and tried to think in the same way. As such, three Stars.
However, it contains so much interesting data and grounds for over-dinner arguments, that in terms of sheer potential entertainment and diversion it would be churlish not to give it an additional star just for that. It depends if you're reading for entertainment, content, education, or ammunition for a ding-dong row over dinner with some like-minded and witty friends.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty freakin' good, 30 Oct 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
"Freakonomics", when it wormed its way onto pretty much every bestsellers' list, was the biggest surprise in publishing for many years (at least for me). It was the first book on economics I'd read, and I was completely blown away. The authors' approach seemed highly original, accessible and interesting.

SuperFreakonomics, as can be expected, unearths a number of freaky things in the economic realm, and the authors treat us to their observations on a broad spectrum of subjects. For example, they delve into the economics of prostitution (it can pay to have a pimp); the `truth' about terrorists' socio-economic origins (it's not what you think); grading your doctors is unfair (though they were also to blame for a lot of disease and death in the 19th Century); they explain their attraction to the idea of their LoJacked cars being stolen; why scarecrows work on humans, too; and others.

The book's not perfect, as a couple of the chapters lag a bit, or go on for a little too long: the section about car-seat safety, for example, while interesting, felt a little repetitive; and the chapter about climate change flitted to car theft before coming back.

One could write endlessly about the contents of this book (and its predecessor), but the most important thing is that "SuperFreakonomics" is engrossing and highly entertaining, and therefore highly recommended. It made me laugh, it surprised me, it informed me, and it entertained me. What more could you want?
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