Includes bibliographical references and index.

An exploratory note --
Introduction: the hidden side of everything --
Ch. 1. What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? --
Ch. 2. How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real-state agents? --
Ch. 3. Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? --
Ch. 4. Where have all the criminals gone? --
Ch. 5. What makes a perfect parent? --
Ch. 6. Perfect parenting, part II; or: would a roshanda by any other name smell as sweet? --
Epilogue: Two paths to Harvard --
Bonus matter.

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an econo-mist 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. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: 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.