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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Arne Duncan's first course of action after the CPS researchers release their report on cheating?

2. What percentage of the vote does an incumbent candidate lose on average if he spends half as much money in his second campaign?

3. How long did JT run the Black Gangster Disciple Nation before being promoted to the Board of Directors?

4. Which of the following is not one of the three types of incentives?

5. Within a single office, who cheats Paul Feldman most?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Paul Feldman learn about honesty from his bagel business?

2. How do the authors show that money spent does not affect election results?

3. How is the organizational structure of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation similar to McDonald's?

4. How were predictions about violent crime in the Nineties incorrect?

5. From what did the Ku Klux Klan derive its power in the twentieth century?

6. What is information asymmetry?

7. What happens to the day-cares of Haifa, Israel when a late-pickup fee is introduced?

8. What example do the authors use at the end of the chapter to show that people will cheat if they know they won't be caught?

9. How did the introduction of crack cocaine reverse a trajectory in American black culture?

10. Why is information crime so difficult to catch?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout FREAKONOMICS, Levitt and Dubner regularly offer apologias to the reader, explaining that they understand that the conclusions they reach may be upsetting or offensive to some. Write an essay examining these apologias. With what findings are they associated? Why do you think the authors deem it necessary to offer an aesthetic caveat to these decisions? To what extent is the final moment of the book a final apologia to the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Commiserate with the inherent distrust of conventional wisdom in FREAKONOMICS is a distrust of experts. Levitt and Dubner explain that experts, far from being disinterest gurus, are guided by the same personal agendas that guide the rest of us. Write an essay on the self-interest of experts, focusing on three types of experts. What does each have to gain from his or her knowledge? What trust do many people put in these experts?

Part 1) Real Estate Agents.

Part 2) Homelessness advocates.

Part 3) Life insurance salesmen.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay detailing the authors' comparison between America and Communist Romania's abortion policies. How is Roe v. Wade and Nicolae Ceausescu's accession drastically alter the availability of abortions? What affect id these changes have on the populace and social order in each country? According to Levitt and Dubner, what was the unexpected end result of these separate changes in abortion policy?

(see the answer keys)

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