The Death of Freakonomics

See The Death of Freakonomics for a blistering takedown of the popular economics books and podcasts. Supposedly Steven Levitt had an ability to analyze data like no one else, get a fresh perspective, and jump to conclusions that the experts overlooked.

Nope. It is all overhyped.

Some of his stuff is trivial. Some of it raises big issues, like crime and global warming.

He is most famous for claiming that legalized abortion led to a decline in crime. The idea is that the unwanted babies were more likely to become criminals. Sounds possible, but the evidence is extremely weak. Others have found errors in his analyses.

I applaud that he tries to present academic research to the public, especially when it has public policy implications. But it is not good if he gets it wrong. He is way too confident about weak or wrong results.