Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't

Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't | John R. Lott Jr. | Excellent Book!

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Freedomnomics: Why...

	Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't John R. Lott Jr. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2007 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 97 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Interesting subject matter, fast read

Read the book over the holidays, enjoyed having the economic discussion in layman's terms. I would reccomend the book to anyone interested in how the US economic system works.

Excellent Book!

Freedomnomics provides a very insightful look at the "economics" aspect behind many of the things we experience in everyday life. Why do lunches cost more than dinners at the same restaurant? Why are drinks so expensive at restaurants? What factors lead to increasing or decreasing rates of crime? Lott investigates these and many other questions by forming testable hypotheses and then looking at the available data.

I thought his case for women's suffrage leading to the expansion of government was particularly powerful, as was his case for legal abortion leading to an increase in crime. Furthermore, his evidence for the deterrent effect of the death penalty may lead some to re-think what is the "pro-life" position on capital punishment.

Even if you don't agree with all of Lott's conclusions, this is a very thought-provoking book and I highly recommend it.

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freedom reigns economics

A genre of economics writings popularized by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's book - Freakonomics - is on a rapid rise. In the last two years alone, no less than a dozen such books have been published. The good thing is that economists are finally claiming their rightful places at the table of pop-culture.

Freedomnomics is just one such claim. It delivers its message in five chapters on current affairs, ranging from erroneous beliefs that corporations exploit almost everyone to the notion that secret ballot voting is an inefficient method for producing public goods and services. The topics are just as fascinating as are the explanations and the solutions the book offers.

The book clearly makes good points in all its five chapters. The general proposition that individual freedom is essential to good economic performance is excellent. For a normal reader there is no need to invoke Milton Friedman as the author's "immunization stratagem" as Mark Blaug would have said it. Nevertheless, although freedom and economic performance are correlated, they do not cause one another. In bad economic times, all nations tend to lose some degrees of freedom, suggesting that it is good economic performance that fosters freedom rather than the other way around. On the other hand, China is beating the pants off everyone's butts, even as she (China) ignores individual freedoms (at least in the Western sense of the word). A lot can be said in this debate, and kudoos to the author for raising the issues.

One thing that I did not like about the book is that it sets up too many straw men, chief among them the book Freakonomics. This is a cheap shot since even the title of the current book seems to derive from Freakonomics. Another weak point is overdone criticism of the "academia" of which the author is clearly a member. It is true that academics live in ivory towers at the theoretical level; it may even be true that some of their theories are currently incomprehensible to industry. It is simply incorrect to conclude from the preceding statement that public colleges and universities are useless. The process of human capital formation, even in nations where freedom reigns, would have fared poorly without public education.

I still think this is a very good book, and recommend it to all readers. Gutsy, insightful, provocative, and all that - five stars!

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

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Freedomnomics Review

Every member of the legislature and the executive branch should be compelled to read this book. It is a real eye opener giving much insight into the relationship between the economy and the government...a must read!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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