Freakonomics

by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

This book is about the economics of very weird situation. So really made a really interesting read. One study was on why the crime rate dropped during the 1990s so suddenly when it was expected crime rate to be continuously on the rise, as it had been for the past decade or two before. However it began to drop drastically without anyone knowing why. Many guesses were made, such as better policing, better living conditions etc. However this book said that it was due to abortion finally being legalized in US. People who would go through abortion are those with low socioeconomic living conditions. So if these children were never born, then there wouldn't be any criminals in the first place. I bet pro-life people just got in all sorts of bother after hearing this theory. Anyways, the proofs described in the book seems quite convincing.

Other examples are on what sumo wrestlers and school teachers have in common, why drug dealers still live with their moms, how the Ku Klux Clan like a real-estate agent, and what makes a perfect parent. These are really topics for economics study, though totally unconventional. Such a wonderful read.

I bought this books several months ago and have only been reading it since about a month ago. This book took quite a while for me to finish. The version I read is the revised edition, with new material. Still it's pretty thin, 250+ pages. Just been so busy with studies and research so yeah.

One final separate note on the theory of abortion as the main cause of dropping crime rate. In Malcolm Gladwell's book (can't remember which) he actually specifies a theory called the Broken Windows theory which was said to be not the main contributor to crime rate drop by this book. So even with these convincing arguments, one can never really be sure which is true. Even the experts cannot agree! So always take all this information with a grain of salt.