Freakonomics Author Levitt to Speak Sept. 17

Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, will speak about his best-selling book on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. in Braden Auditorium.  The event, sponsored by the Sage Trust Fund, is free and open to the public. He also will participate in a question and answer session at 3 p.m. on the main floor of Milner Library.

Levitt is the Alvin H. Baum Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also director of The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory.  In 2005, he co-authored Freakonomics with Stephen J. Dubner.  The book, which has been described as a melding of pop culture and economics, has been hailed by critics and readers alike.  The book spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold more than three million copies worldwide.

Freakonomics applies economic theory to a wide array of subjects that are not traditionally studied by economists.  In the book, Levitt and Dubner argue that economics is mainly the study of incentives and examine such things as cheating by teachers and sumo wrestlers, the economics of drug dealing, the impact of legalized abortion on crime rates and socioeconomic patterns of naming children.

Levitt and Dubner's book, SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance, will be released this October.