The documentary based on the bestselling book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, will get its world premiere on April 30th at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary is a compilation of five vignettes made by prominent documentary filmmakers, including Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me).
The book, which published in 2005, mixes smart thinking with great storytelling, exploring the relationship between economics and human behavior, which can be summed up, according to the authors, like this: "people respond to incentives." Among the topics explored in Freakonomics are the connection between teachers and sumo wrestlers, the economics of drug dealing, the relative dangers of guns and swimming pools, and the socioeconomic patterns of naming children. Freakonomics was recently published in paperback.
The highly anticipated follow-up to Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, was published last October. Some of the topics explored in the second book are the relationships between pimps and realtors, between TV and crime, and between street prostitutes and department-store Santas. Steven Levitt is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. Stephen Dubner is an author and journalist. Freakonomics has sold more than four million copies worldwide. You have to like books that make you look at the world in different ways and reconsider your assumptions. At least I do.
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