Book Review: SuperFreakonomics
In the weekend edition of the Financial Times on October 17-18, 2009, there is a picture of a slender woman's legs with the heading: The Price of Vice, with the sub-heading, Why pimps have a greater financial impact than real estate agents.
Are prostitutes and pimps being written about in the Financial Times?
The article is a book review of the new book SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Duber. Their previous book, Freakonomics, was a huge success selling millions of copies around the world.
According to economist and Financial Times writer Tim Harford, the book is a lot like Freakonomics, but better.
Stephen J. Dubner profiled economist Steven D. Levitt in a New York Times Magazine, which resulted in the book Freakonomics. Mr. Levitt is a influential professor at the University of Chicago.
Freakonomics, as Mr. Harford writes, was fascinating and likeable.
SuperFreakonomics covers prostitution, counter-terrorism, altruism, innovation, and geo-engineering.
The most interesting chapters in the book is the first one on prostitution, and the last one on global warming. The chapter on prostitution goes back-and-forth between an engaging profile of a high-end escort and various digressions into the economics of gender and other topics.
The authors write that a prostitute gets more money through the use of a pimp than a homeowner gets through the use of a realtor, or real estate agent. The financial impact of a pimp is greater than that of a realtor.
Mr. Levitt and Mr. Dubner wonder not why someone like Allie becomes a prostitute, but rather why more women don’t choose this career. Unfortunately, this question is not answered in the book.
The analysis of street prostitution is based on careful academic work. SuperFreakonomics is highly entertaining. Tim Harford says that the book is in no doubt a page-turner.
SuperFreakonomics
Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
William Morrow, 288 pages, $29.99
Read a collection of Freakonomics columns by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt for the New York Times or the Freakonomics Blog. Visit Stephen Dubner's website.
Tim Harford is the Financial Times's Undercover Economist. View his website.
