Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

by Steven D. Levitt

And the millions of women most likely to have an abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade—poor, unmarried, and teenage mothers for whom illegal abortions had been too expensive or too hard to get—were often models of adversity. They were the very women whose children, if born, would have been much more likely than average to become criminals. But because of Roe v. Wade, these children weren’t being born.

This was the highlight of the book for me. The authors went more in depth into this topic in a later chapter.

This powerful cause would have a drastic, distant effect: years later, just as these unborn children would have entered their criminal primes, the rate of crime began to plummet.

Indeed, election data show it is true that the candidate who spends more money in a campaign usually wins.

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.

There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social, and moral. Very often a single incentive scheme will include all three varieties.

Whatever the incentive, whatever the situation, dishonest people will try to gain an advantage by whatever means necessary.