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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. To what technology do the authors compare the system they use for determining regression analysis?

2. What do the authors claim is the essential function of a gun?

3. What does Levitt credit with the rise of distinctly black names in the twentieth century?

4. Which group generally tests highest?

5. In the authors' hypothetical comparison of two boys' lives, where does the poor black boy grow up?

Short Essay Questions

1. What policy recommendations do the authors make regarding their theories?

2. How is the quality of life of an aborted child different from one that is born?

3. What national trends regarding crime in the nineties belie the relevance of the Giuliani-Bratton strategy?

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

5. What study is cited involving names and job hiring?

6. How do the authors explain the correlation between number of books and achievement?

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

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

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

10. What caveat of hope do Dubner and Levitt give regarding parenting at the end of the book?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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.

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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