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Freakonomics Twentieth Anniversary Edition: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything—A Groundbreaking Exploration of Hidden Incentives, Behavioral Economics, and Unconventional Wisdom
The legendary bestseller that made millions look at the world in a radically different way returns in a beautiful 20th anniversary edition featuring a new foreword
Which is more a gun or a swimming pool? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? What do real estate agents and the KKK have in common?
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this freakonomics.
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Freakonomics establishes this unconventional If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
This 20th anniversary edition of the book includes a gorgeous new cover design and a new foreword by Stephen Dubner, reflecting on the unexpected impact Freakonomics has had on the world over the last two decades, as well as the New York Times Magazine profile Dubner wrote about Levitt that started it all.
Which is more a gun or a swimming pool? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? What do real estate agents and the KKK have in common?
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this freakonomics.
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Freakonomics establishes this unconventional If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
This 20th anniversary edition of the book includes a gorgeous new cover design and a new foreword by Stephen Dubner, reflecting on the unexpected impact Freakonomics has had on the world over the last two decades, as well as the New York Times Magazine profile Dubner wrote about Levitt that started it all.
303 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 11, 2025
36 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Steven D. Levitt
34 books4,274 followersSteven David Levitt is an American economist and co-author of the best-selling book Freakonomics and its sequels (along with Stephen J. Dubner). Levitt was the winner of the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal for his work in the field of crime, and is currently the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago as well as the Faculty Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Radical Innovation for Social Change at the University of Chicago which incubates the Data Science for Everyone coalition. He was co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy published by the University of Chicago Press until December 2007. In 2009, Levitt co-founded TGG Group, a business and philanthropy consulting company. He was chosen as one of Time magazine's "100 People Who Shape Our World" in 2006. A 2011 survey of economics professors named Levitt their fourth favorite living economist under the age of 60, after Paul Krugman, N. Gregory Mankiw and Daron Acemoğlu.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 12, 2025
Written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner and read by Dubner, this edition of Freakonomics revisits theories posited in the original work and finds that many still seem to prove true. Looking at unique features, such as student test scores, the two highlight how seemingly unconnected issues and events do have far reaching effects.
The authors believe that incentives drive the world and prevail over morality, offering examples to prove their point. Teachers who were rewarded (in Chicago) for students with high test scores, improbably produced high test scores. Whether or not the students did. The two look at other facets of society such as which candidates get a lot of campaign contributions and why people are more frightened of dangers seemingly out of their control than of those that can be controlled.
Everyone who enjoyed the first book will want to read this updated version.
The authors believe that incentives drive the world and prevail over morality, offering examples to prove their point. Teachers who were rewarded (in Chicago) for students with high test scores, improbably produced high test scores. Whether or not the students did. The two look at other facets of society such as which candidates get a lot of campaign contributions and why people are more frightened of dangers seemingly out of their control than of those that can be controlled.
Everyone who enjoyed the first book will want to read this updated version.
January 18, 2026
While we were in Madrasah, the expensive car was still builded. There is no God, but Allah SWT. Peace be upon him. Ahlussunnah wal jama'ah.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2026
Read first edition 20 yrs ago and loved this update and re read
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews