Freakonomics

Most people are easy to impress with statistics. And since I like to impress, I love statistics. Even the most senseless or most useless ones. When you know that 78.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot (or maybe that was 62.3%), it is strange that people rarely ask questions about numbers. It is astonishing how easily ‘truth’ is created by numbers, even asking whether these numbers are actually true. Anyhow, Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and New York Times Journalist Stephen J. Dubner, is a book full of statistics, but invites the reader to look at numbers carefully. Its educated insolence has the same spirit as Damned Lies and Statistics, a book I read a couple of years ago.

People were appalled by the ‘news’ that 40.000, mainly Eastern European prostitutes would operate during the World Cup Football in Germany earlier this summer. The number was released by the Coalition against Trafficking in Women; nobody wondered where that number came from, and nobody took care to make a simple calculation: if a prostitute can ‘handle’ 4 clients per day, and the tournament lasted 30 days, than the potential clientele should be 4×30x40.000=4.8 million men. Since there were around 2.2 million men who visited a match, this would translate into 2 visits per spectator per month, a rather unlikely number. From an economical point of view, it would be very uninteresting for a prostitute to set up business just for one month in Germany. In case you wondered: prostitution is legal in Germany, and when the tournament was over, there were no signs of any increase of prostitution. This is just one example Messrs. Levitt and Dubner could have given. It is a way of questioning every statistical ‘fact’ that is presented as such.

The subtitle says that it explores “The Hidden Side of Everything”, but that claim is a little bit overzealous. When challenging opinions easily shock you, then maybe you shouldn’t read this book. Or maybe you should, because it might change your prejudices. The book is focused on American statistics, which is a pity since economics is such an international science. The few times the writers give examples of other territories, they have mostly digged into the New York Times archives. But besides that, Freakonomics is an entertaining read during your summer holidays.