We’re upgrading! Please come back and check-in on us in a couple hours! In the meantime, listen to our latest Freakonomics Radio episode. This week: Is Twitter a Two-Way Street? You can download/subs...
In August, 2007, the Freakonomics blog took up residence on NYTimes.com. It has been a great ride. But now we are riding off, back to an independent Freakonomics.com. We plan to flip the switch somet...
Ian Ayres has long advocated the use of commitment contracts in achieving dieting and weight loss goals. Alan M Garber and Jeremy D Goldhaber-Fieber write about their research on commitment contracts...
In celebration of its 100-year anniversary, the American Economic Review asked six "eminent economists" (Kenneth J. Arrow, B. Douglas Bernheim, Martin S. Feldstein, Daniel L. McFadden, James ...
While arcades in the U.S. (and most of the rest of the world) are fading, theyre still strong in Japan. Why? According to Mark Cerny, an arcade gaming expert, it has to do with currency.
A new study finds that drug use in Britain is declining amount young adults: "According to figures released by the NHS in January, based on data from the British Crime Survey, the number of adult...
Sure, studying transportation is important if you need to find the best route to the hardware store. But you might be surprised to know that transportation study might have other uses, like enlighten...
A reader named Sarah Johnson, who is passionate about crocheting, noticed something curious about the demographics of a user-rated knitting-and-crocheting website called Ravelry. Sarah is graduating ...
At a seminar in Germany last week, a statistical difference illustrated a crucial E.U.-U.S. difference in politico-economic attitudes. In the U.S., we define the poverty line as absolute: three times...
Cholera, long considered "a disease of filth carried in sewage," is a little more complicated than that, writes the science journalist Sonia Shah. "[R]esearch on choleras natural habitat ...
Im back to inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent research.
Are you ready for some labor negotiations? Yes, the National Football League held a nice Super Bowl just a couple weeks ago - the Green Bay Packers beat my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, sadly. Still, ...
A new study finds that parents in newer, "frontier" states choose less-common baby names than parents in older states (like the original 13). "In New England states, more babies were give...
Last week, Michigans Save-to-Win program, the sort of "no-lose lottery" we discussed in a two-part podcast, announced its second winner. Charmain Hanners of Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union is...
My Department chairman is mystified: You would think that with the crisis in public budgets, the demand for new economics faculty members would have shifted leftward. Similarly, with graduate student...
Dean Karlan is a professor of economics at Yale; president and founder of Innovations for Poverty Action; a research fellow at the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab; and co-author, with Jacob Appel, o...
In this weeks New Yorker, John Cassidy asks whether Islam may be to blame for slow economic growth in the Arab world.
Weve addressed the rent-splitting problem before. Now, Harvard astrophysics grad student Jonathan Bittner is seeking to solve the problem with a rent calculator to help roommates approximate fair pri...
The Salina Journal, a daily newspaper in Salina, Kansas, has published a final exam that was given to local eighth-graders in 1895 (via this friendly website). ("It was taken from the original do...
Ive been watching developments in the Middle East and Northern Africa closely. It can be hard to keep track of it all. Fortunately, the prediction markets at InTrade provide a useful barometer.
Readers of this blog may be surprised to learn that in 2005 I coauthored an article with Jonathan Macey which made explicit predictions about the future of democratization in Egypt. In 2005, Jonathan...
Watson may have triumphed at Jeopardy!, but Brian Christian examines computer intelligence more closely in the Atlantic. Christian recently participated in the Turing Test: "I will sit down at a ...
Obesity is far from just an American problem. These nifty maps from the Economist display average BMI for males around the world in 1980 and 2008, and the percentage change.
This weeks Freakonomics Radio podcast is a bit unusual in that, instead of featuring a variety of guests, it has only one. But I think youll understand why once youve listened to it. The guest is Ed ...
The IBM supercomputer named Watson has beaten two Jeopardy! champions in a three-night marathon. The computer was awarded a $1 million prize, but the BBC reports that "the victory for Watson and ...
A while back, we did a Freakonomics Radio program asking why the NFL hasnt (yet) put advertising on its players jerseys. One person we spoke with was Michael Neuman, then of Amplify Sports and Entert...
Kal Raustiala, a professor at UCLA Law School and the UCLA International Institute, and Chris Sprigman, a professor at the University of Virginia Law School, are experts in counterfeiting and intelle...
One session at the recent AEA meetings addressed "popular economics," with a panel including Diane Coyle, Robert Frank, Steve Levitt, and Robert Shiller. (Shiller wrote a bit about it on Slat...
Ordering your significant other to ignore the attractive person at the next table might backfire, according to a new study.
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