Steven D.Levitt

professed little interest

Economics is, at root, the study of incentives: how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.

If economics is a science primarily concerned with incentives, it is also—fortunately—a science with statistical tools to measure how people respond to those incentives. All you need are some data.

Why is “I don’t know” so hard to say? . . . Sure, kids make up answers but why do we? . .

The absurdly talented George Bernard Shaw—a world-class writer and a founder of the London School of Economics—noted this thought deficit many years ago. “Few people think more than two or three times a year,” Shaw reportedly said. “I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week