Recent reads (in brief)

Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

This book might just as well have been titled Freakopsychology or Freakosociology, since many of the anecdotes related have only a tenuous connection to economics as most people understand the term. However, it does provide some interesting and thought-provoking examples of the ways in which both overt and covert incentives affect human behavior. The gratuitous self-promotion of Steven D. Levitt is annoying, especially the adulatory quotes which introduce every chapter, all of which are taken from the same magazine article.