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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. Which of the following is not a bit of specialty information Levitt says a real estate owner claims to have?

2. Which of the following real estate terms indicates that a home buyer should bid high?

3. According to the authors, what euphemism means that a house is largely dilapidated?

4. What percentage commission does a real estate broker generally take from a home sale?

5. According to James Alan Fox in 1995, what is the minimum rise in violent crime to be expected in the next decade?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What unorthodox theory do the authors offer regarding the drop in crime in the late 1990s?

3. What is the nature of discrimination on The Weakest Link?

4. Why would some winning sumo wrestlers throw a match?

5. How is a sumo wrestler's life affected by his ranking?

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

7. To what extent is the winning of a conventional wisdom battle key to achieving public success?

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 were predictions about violent crime in the Nineties incorrect?

10. Why is information crime so difficult to catch?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 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

Write an essay on the theories surround the drop in violent crime in America in the nineties. In the essay, discuss two theories that the authors determine had no effect on crime and one that they determine did. Why is each theory either effective or ineffective? How do the authors go about showing the validity of each? For the one that is deemed effective, how could policy be changed to incorporate this theory?

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