Steven D. Levitt Is a

¶ … Steven D. Levitt is a professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. Other books by the author Superfreakonomics (2009). Who is the target audience for the book? Freakonomics is aimed at a general audience with no background in the study of economics. Is it historical, contemporary, emerging? Contemporary, the book is aimed at current socioeconomic phenomena and proposes explanations based on neoclassical economic theory, supported by sample studies.

• Discuss the issues as it relates to public administration and how it relates to; the individual, the group, the workforce, the organization, and the community in Public Administration. Economic theory is important to Public Administration because it attempts to explain and predict human behavior and thought processes in certain situations. The basic goal of policy-makers is to shape human behavior through the use of incentives and disincentives, which often take the form of laws or institutions.

A policymaker's view on human behavior, and its motivating factors, will determine how that policymaker tries to incentivize desirable behavior and disincentivize undesirable behavior. Summarize the overall theme of the book The main theme is that "incentives are the cornerstone of modern life." By understanding the incentives controlling certain behaviors, we can better understand those behaviors. Identify the main issue(S) or premise you agree with and why? I agree with Levitt for the most part. It is undeniable that most people are pursuing their own interests when making decisions.

That is, most human behavior can be understood, and perhaps shaped and controlled, by identifying the particular incentives which motivate that behavior. Identify the issue(s) or premise you disagree with and why? The books' focus on incentives is premised on the "rational actor" model, which assumes that a person's behavior has a rational relationship with the person's behavior. This relationship would yield the type of incentive that Levitt emphasizes as the cornerstone of modern life. However, it is not certain that people pursue always their interests rationally.

That is, whether people have an accurate understanding of how certain behavior affects their interests. There are a number of reasons someone may behave irrationally when pursuing her own self-interest. Some people believe they are acting in their best interests when making a decision, but may make a decision that hurts their interests because of bad information. Also, there may be some sort of a "bias" which distorts their understanding of that relationship.

For example, many people suffer from what psychologists call a "present-bias," where a person will choose an inferior option over a superior option because it brings more immediate gratification. Presentation of concepts in an understandable fashion The very aim of the book is to apply economic theory to real-life problems, problems which economists do not typically deal with. Levitt is successful in doing so without using a lot of economic jargon.

Antidotes or examples to illustrate points Levitt uses a quite controversial example proposing a link between increased abortions and a resulting reduction in crime rates. He posited that increased abortion resulted in less unwanted children to unprepared mothers, who were often younger, poorer, and residents of poorer neighborhoods. Levitt suggests that such unwanted children were more likely to be criminals than the average child. Thus, the reduction in such children, through abortion, led to a decline in the general crime rate.

How did the book represent public administration and its policies. This example illustrated the relationship between behavior (mother's abortion of unwanted children), incentives (the preservation of mother's scarce resources), and law (the legality of abortion). The assumption is that banning abortion would stifle a mother's ability to preserve resources, thereby increasing the production of probable criminals. This explanation of the data could have some influence on the development of abortion policy in the United States. Other scholars, like Samuel Krislov, would add a useful.