Another review of Freedomnomics

The review is available here:

Reading Freedomnomics will enlighten the reader relating facts which will astonish and sometimes make you want to applaud the free market system. John Lott educated me with other examples of how the free market works, and further explains in a narrative and easy to follow manner why we should continue to allow the free markets to prevail. The statistics and examples he uses are indisputable. This book should be retained as an affirmation when you doubt the benefits of the free market system.

Reviews at Facebook of Freedomnomics

Many are extremely nice, a few aren't, but I still appreciate people reading the book. The reviews are here.

Walter Williams discusses Freedomnomics

Walter's entire piece can be seen here:

By taking a couple of courses in economic theory, we could immunize ourselves from nonsense spouted by politicians and pundits, but in the meantime check out Professor John R. Lott's "Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works."

His first chapter is "Are You Being Ripped Off?" It addresses myths about predation where it's sometimes alleged that corporations will charge below-cost prices to bankrupt their rivals and then charge unconscionable prices. There's little or no evidence that corporations would choose predation as strategy; there are too many pitfalls. A major one is that in order to recoup losses from charging low prices to bankrupt rivals, the predator would later have to charge higher-than-normal prices. That would attract new rivals who might have purchased the bankrupt assets of the predator's prey and be able to undercut the predator's prices. . . .

Thanks, Walter.

Discussion of impact of women's suffrage on government growth

Gaston Phebus has this discussion of Freedomnomics:

Celui qui a découvert pourquoi l’État-Providence (qui s’est subséquemment révélé comme le parfait aspirateur d’immigration) a été mis en place, c’est John Lott. Je le considère comme l’un des meilleurs économistes américains de la jeune génération, même s’il est loin d’avoir recueilli les lauriers qu’il méritait. Il a une fâcheuse tendance à s’intéresser à des questions si chargées au niveau politique qu’elles peuvent torpiller une carrière. Il s’est plus d’une fois fait éjecter d’une université prestigieuse sous la pression du maire ou du gouverneur parce qu’il avait dit haut et fort ce qu’il fallait taire.

Ses recherches montrent que l’inflation sans précédente (et insoutenable) du rôle de l’État est due au vote des femmes. Dès qu’on permet aux femmes de voter, bingo ! l’État commence à s’occuper de corriger tout un tas d’ « injustices sociales » en mettant en place des mécanismes de redistribution massifs – qui aspirent aussi toute la misère du monde.

Voici un graphique montrant comment, dans les 10 années qui suivent l’obtention du droit de vote par les femmes, les dépenses de l’État doublent. Ce doublement est dû à la mise en place des allocation en tous genres qui forment l’État-Providence. C’est extrait de la page 163 du livre Freedomnomics de John Lott.

A French Review of Freedomnomics

The website Copeau Reloaded has this review here (I hope that the translation isn't too bad):

That's how in 2007 John Lott published Freedomnomics, which is meant not to be an answer little by little in Levitt, but to be a series of examples which, by drawing inspiration from the same method of presentation as Freakonomics, defends and illustrates the intrinsic superiority of free market [15]. Here are someone of his examples:

He explains that the increase in prices linked to the passage of the hurricane Katrina allowed to restrict losses linked to this one, and that the price controls by the government have contrario, as it was case for similar facts in the seventies, would have returned more hard life to the victims of the hurricane.

Other example, it supports that it is necessary that the Americans pay their medicaments a lot, not only to guarantee the dynamics of the innovation of laboratories, principally American, but also make it be of benefit the rest of the planet.

On the other hand, it shows that reputation is more important in economy than penalties caused by law or disadvantageous judgement [16].

Last example given by Lott, the abortion and the positive discrimination played in the police, augmented crimes and offences; he asserts more than the death penalty, the application of law and troubles, and right given to the citizens to hit weapon favours the fall of crime considerably. Always according to him, the age, the breed and the control of weapon would have little effects on the rate of crime.

Another couple nice mentions of Freedomnomics

Here is one mention:

After his book Freedomnomics, I think that Professor Lott is my favourite economist. He generally makes a lot of sense, although his blog tends to focus on the benefits of gun ownership a tad more than I would prefer (not that I am anti-gun ownership, it just is not a subject which interests me too much).

And another nice mention of Freedomnomics can be found here:

For those interested in more on the economy, I highly recommend Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. This easy to understand book explains the basic tenets of our free market. Other great reads include Applied Economics and Freedomnomics.

Another Review of Freedomnomics

Another review of Freedomnomics:

I recommend Freedomnomics, especially in its audio format. While it didn’t convince me to take classes in economics, it did prompt me to think a little more deeply about the way that I interact with businesses, government, and audiobooks.

Overall, I thought what he thought was the main point of the book was much too narrow.

Another Review of Freedomnomics

Brian Shelly has a review of Freedomnomics here:

However, I read Freedomnomics by Economist Dr. John Lott. This book was a pretty easy read and I found some of the information jaw dropping. His specialty is crime and punishment and Chapter 4, which focuses on that, just blew me away. It really showed how conventional wisdom is flat out wrong when you look at the data on crime. . . .

Another Review of Freedomnomics

This review by Nathan was somewhat mixed:

I read it because I read Freakonomics, which, like other political (and semi-political) books, I found to be about "half-right," which is to say that a critical reading reduces it to the level of fiction; Freakonomics is opinion mixed in with statistics.

Freedomnomics proved to be exactly what I expected, which is to say, exactly the same but with different opinions. Where Freakonomics contests that Abortion decreased crime, Freedomnomics contests the opposite. Where Freakonomics says you shouldn't trust your Real Estate agent, Freedomnomics suggests otherwise.

I enjoy reading these kinds of books because I do read them through a critical lens, and I enjoy the facts that come out of them. Usually, a critical reading of these books allows the reader to examine the statistics and draw his own conclusions, often completely different than the opinions presented by the author(s).

For example, I learned from Freedomnomics that the "lemon effect" on new automobiles presented in Freakonomics is not true. This makes sense - the idea had long since made very little sense to me, as cars usually have warrantees that transfer with ownership transfers. Though Freedomnomics presented some opinions that seemed unfounded, the facts concerning automobiles (in the form of Kelly Blue Book prices) were also present, and these are indisputable . . .

Another (very long) review of Freedomnomics

Economist WIlliam Sjostrom has a very nice review of my book up on his website. It was very nice of him to take this much time to review it.

The short version: my doubts are small. Read it, read it, read it, and, oh yeah, read it.

More Reviews of Freedomnomics

"These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty" writes:

More than just a response to “Freakonomics”, this is a great book that explains why the free market works and socialism doesn’t.

Another Review of Freedomnomics

I first heard of Dr. John R. Lott's Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't on Neal Boortz's radio program. Mr. Boortz made repeated reference to one particular chapter in the book dealing with the effects women's suffrage has had on the growth of government in the United States, and I found my interest piqued, especially as our household already has Dr. Lott's More Guns, Less Crime on our shelves, and I know him to be a meticulous researcher. . . .

As I said, Dr. Lott covers far more than this. Overall, the book is to-the-point, logically organized, quite accessible to the layman, and highly entertaining. Highly recommended.

Another mention of Freedomnomics

Training Within Industry was nice enough to write this:

A great book about incentives, progress and human behavior is Freedomnomics, a well written rebuttal of the book Freakonomics. To get “the other side of the story”, check it out.

More comments on Freedomnomics

I'm just getting started on this book. So far, it is--thankfully!--a much more interesting read than Dr. Lott's More Guns, Less Crime, which is a marvelous repository of information and should be on the shelf of everyone interested in the second amendment, self-defense, crime, and liberty, but is nevertheless, for the most part, a drearily boring exposition of reams of statistical data that only the most determined reader will slog through to confirm a thesis which is intuitively obvious to most of us: a ubiquitously armed citizenry suffers less crime.

Well, I didn't mean to slam More Guns, Less Crime. Like I said, it should be on shelves everywhere. I'm just sayin' Freedomnomics looks to be a considerably more entertaining read, though no less informative.

Recommended Books for Christmas Gifts

Mike Adams, a criminology professor and columnist, sent out his annual list of books give and not to give as Christmas gifts:

"Freak-o-nomics," by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dupner.

This book has raised quite a stink with its assertion that legalizing
abortion in the 1970s greatly reduced crime on the 1990s. The book
also makes claims about the effects of right-to-carry laws on crime
rates, which are contrary to what I have been saying in speeches on
college campuses including Ohio University and, more recently,
Bucknell University. Nonetheless, I always encourage my readers to
seek contrary opinions.

"Freedom-nomics" by John R. Lott, Jr.

In this enjoyable book, Lott offers an intriguing argument about the
true effects the 1973 "Roe" decision has had on crime. This argument
alone makes the book well worth the purchase price. But Lott also
offers a strong rebuttal to the assertion that right-to-carry laws
have not reduced crime. Levitt and Dupner suggest that Lott may have
fabricated data and that there has been a widespread inability of
others to replicate his results. But, why then, are there more
refereed studies (fifteen) showing that CCWs reduce homicide rates
than refereed studies (ten) showing no effect? And why are there no
(exactly zero) refereed studies showing the CCWs are increasing
homicide rates? Was that not the principal argument against
right-to-carry laws in the first place?

Lott also makes a strong case for the deterrent effect of the death
penalty, which is causing this lifelong abolitionist to reconsider his
position.

The American Hunter Reviews Freedomnomics

This is from the December 2007 issue:

When John R. Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, sent me a copy of Freedomnomics, I was ready for my preconceptions to be busted; after all, this is the guy who, after years of research, proved that gun control doesn't lower crime rates -- actuall all it does is disarm law-abiding citizens. Freedomnomics starts with a hat tip to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, then clearly shows what the free market has done for America and the free world. The book includes chapter titled "Crime and Punishment" that covers our Second Amendment freedoms. Lott delves into crime statistics to find out if things like the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban worked. When the ban expired in 2004 Sarah Brady predicted that it would effectively "arm our kids with Uzis and AK-47s." Instead, Lott's research shows the nationwide murder rate fell by 3 percent in 2004. This book busts anti-free market myths and will give you control and many other issues pertinent to America today.

Lemuel Calhoon's Review of Freedomnomics

A strong positive review by Lemuel Calhoon is greatly appreciated:

In five well written chapters Dr. Lott not only refutes the assertions of Freakonomics he sings a paean of praise to the free market and demonstrates why it is uniquely suited to not only provide any nation which embraces it with the greatest abundance, but how it also polices itself and keeps fraud and predation to a minimum. . . . .

Another Review of Freedomnomics

From the World Magazine:

That is why I salute John Lott's Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't (Regnery, 2007), a voice of reason in a swamp of interventionist megalomania that threatens to push the land of the free down the road of the late Roman Empire.

Freedomnomics, translating economics into regular English, shows that bureaucratic and judicial attempts to correct the market restore feudalism and hurt the poor. Corporate scandals that lower a firm's reputation create disincentives to cheat and thus become part of a self-correcting market mechanism. Lott also discerns the true link between legalized abortion and crime: In opposition to the best-selling book Freakonomics, he shows that easy access to abortion leads to change in attitudes to premarital sex, more out-of-wedlock children, family breakdown, and thus to more crime. . . . .

Todd Zywicki posts nice review of Freedomnomics on Volokh.com

Todd Zywicki writes a very nice review of my book at volokh.com.

I just finished reading John Lott's marvelous and entertaining book Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't. It is very well-written and it really reminds you of what an extraordinarily creative and interesting thinker Lott is. Much of the book is a translation of his many papers in different areas into prose and concepts accessible to general readers.

Glenn Reynolds was nice enough to post a link to Todd's review on Instapundit.

Another Review of Freedomnomics

If you read "Freakonomics," Then you had better read "Freedomnomics: Why The Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't" by John R. Lott, Jr. You owe it to yourself and to anyone you recommended "Freakonomics" to.