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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. How much did JT's revenue increase over the four year period chronicled in Booty's financial records?

2. Which two philosophers does Levitt cite who subscribe to the belief that people are inherently good?

3. Informational asymmetry indicates the use of information for what?

4. Which of the following is not a group persecuted by the Klan in the twentieth century?

5. Which two groups are the most discriminated against on Weakest Link?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why would a foot soldier risk death or arrest in a gang that pays him less than minimum wage for his labor?

2. How have attitudes toward public bigotry changed in recent years?

3. Why is information crime so difficult to catch?

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

5. What is information asymmetry?

6. How does the inclusion of a small monetary compensation affect blood donation in the 1970s?

7. According to the authors, what motivates everyone?

8. How does terminology help real estate agents set a price for a house?

9. What tactics do researchers use to determine if CPS teachers are cheating on standardized tests?

10. How did Stetson Kennedy use the information he compiled about the Ku Klux Klan?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At its root, FREAKONOMICS is a study in contrarian thinking. Dubner and Levitt lionize the idea of the "hidden side," and their studies espouse a willful denial of conventional thought. Write an essay about the hidden side of three trends. What is the conventional wisdom regarding each trend? How do the authors disassemble these conventional theories? What fresh notion do they reach in the end?

Part 1) The drop in violent crime in the mid 1990's.

Part 2) The lucrative nature of hard drugs.

Part 3) The importance of parental involvement in a child's development.

Essay Topic 2

Dubner and Levitt regularly analyze "consumer patterns" in American culture. This allows them to see how trends shift from group to group - particularly between socioeconomic groups - and what this says about societal influences. Write an essay about consumer trends in two parts:

Part 1) How are nylon stockings similar to crack cocaine? To what extent is each a more affordable and mass-produced version of a luxury good? Explain in this section how both of these products represent a trend shift from high-end consumers to low-end consumers.

Part 2) How are child names a commodity that regularly move from one group to another? What are the driving forces behind the national trends regarding baby names? How do baby names shift from one group to another?

Essay Topic 3

Much of the early section of FREAKONOMICS is dedicated to the idea of honesty in society. Write an essay about three of the analyzed systems and what they say about honesty. What incentives does each person in the system have either to act truthfully or cheat? How does this create a system in which cheating is common? How do arbiters attempt to affect the dynamic to stop cheating? Is it successful?

Part 1) The Sumo wrestling leagues of Japan.

Part 2) The Chicago Public School System.

Part 3) Paul Feldman's bagel business.

(see the answer keys)

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