Freakonomics

We have evolved with a tendency to link causality to things we can touch or feel, not to some distant or difficult phenomenon.

more than we thought. So we’ve

the story of Feldman’s bagel business lies at the very intersection of morality and economics. Yes, a lot of people steal from him, but the vast majority, even though no one is watching over them, do not.

Information is the currency of the Internet.

Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life. And understanding them—or, often, ferreting them out—is the key to solving just about any riddle, from violent crime to sports cheating to online dating.

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.

hopes (each race fields a slate of 43 cars), a few bad crashes might. So Nascar has reduced a danger incentive but imposed a financial incentive, thus maintaining the delicate and masterful balance it has cultivated: it has enough crashes to satisfy its fans but not too many to destroy the sport—or its drivers.

journalists and experts are the architects of much conventional wisdom.

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

team would load up the car and go home,” says Gary Nelson, who runs Nascar’s research and development center.