SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance [9780060889586]

Overview

Freakonomics lived on the New York Times bestseller list for an astonishing two years. Now authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with more iconoclastic insights and observations in SuperFreakonomics—the long awaited follow-up to their New York Times Notable blockbuster. Based on revolutionary research and original studies, SuperFreakonomics promises to once again challenge our view of human behavior and the way the world really works.

Applying their signature economic approach, Levitt and Dubner tackle a new set of provocative questions:

• Behavioral Economics: Why do street prostitutes have more in common with a department-store Santa than you’d think, and what can monkeys teach us about the stock market?
• Counterintuitive Thinking: Explore the real data behind life-and-death decisions, from whether it’s safer to walk drunk or drive drunk to why a suicide bomber might buy life insurance.
• Unintended Consequences: Discover how the arrival of cable TV empowered women in rural India and why the invention of the car seat may not be the simple lifesaver we assume it is.
• Cheap and Simple Fixes: From a simple hand-washing protocol that saved thousands of lives to a garden hose that could reverse global warming, learn why the best solutions are often the easiest.