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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. Who was the hypothetical black boy in the Chapter 5 comparison?

2. As of 2004, roughly how many fetuses have been aborted in America?

3. What Eighties movie comedy was instrumental in the popularity of the name Madison?

4. According to the authors, what does Freakonomics thinking not traffic in?

5. Which of the following is not an action the authors regularly recommend in order to reach unexpected conclusions?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the authors explain the above contradiction in fears?

2. How does Ceausescu create an opposite ripple effect in Romania than what occurs in America at the same time?

3. In what two ways do larger prisons affect less crime in a community?

4. According to Dubner and Levitt, what is the essential function of the gun?

5. What determination do the authors make regarding parenting in this chapter?

6. What situation in Chicago in 1980 offers the authors a chance to review the effect of education on children's development?

7. How does Roland G. Fryer, Jr., figure into the book both as a source and a topic?

8. What connection exists between celebrity and popular names?

9. Why did the influence of crack cocaine decline in the 1990s?

10. What hypothetical comparison do the authors create between two boys' upbringings?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the world as analyzed by Dubner and Levitt in FREAKONOMICS, information is a tangible commodity. From it derives power and influence over others, and many groups primarily derive their power from information. Write an essay on information as a commodity, in three parts:

Part 1) Information asymmetry is the purposeful consolidation of information by a group for the sake of greater influence. How is this an effective technique in controlling others? What examples exist of information asymmetry exist in our culture?

Part 2) To what extent did the Ku Klux Klan's power derive from its secrecy? As such, how were Stetson Kennedy's techniques against the Klan particularly effective at disempowering them?

Part 3) The authors state that the advent of the internet was a boon for a society held hostage to information asymmetry. What businesses were affected adversely by this new freedom of information? How were they affected?

Essay Topic 2

Roland G. Fryer, Jr., is a Harvard-educated researcher who focuses on the socio-economic separations between black and white Americans. Write an essay covering three ways in which this separation manifests itself. How do these examples detail a separate cultural identity and an achievement gap? What are some of the origins of this separation? What conclusions do Levitt and Dubner draw from Fryer's research into these schisms?

Essay Topic 3

Levitt states throughout FREAKONOMICS that the guiding force behind all systemic trends are incentives. A person or group acts according to what they believe they can gain. Write an essay about incentives in three parts:

Part 1) What incentive does a real estate agent have fore selling a house at a lower price? Doesn't she receive a larger commission if the house goes for more money? Does she have different selling practices regarding her own house?

Part 2) What incentive would a professional sumo wrestler have for throwing a fight? How does the ranking system of the sumo wrestling league create this incentive? How does cheating create a situation where everyone benefits?

Part 3) The authors detail in Chapter 3 the ways in which a crack-gang like the Black Gangster Disciple Nation offers little in the way of compensation to most of its members. Why do so many young urban men join? What incentive do they perceive in the gang and its dangerous activity?

(see the answer keys)

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