Freakonomics in the Times Magazine: Up in Smoke
Read the Column » Measuring the Impact of Crack Cocaine By Roland G. Fryer, Jr., Paul S. Heaton, Steven D. Levitt, Kevin M. Murphy An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang’s Finances By Steven D....
View ArticleForget my approach, an even freakier way to measure cocaine use
Our last Freakonomics column was about the indirect approach that Roland Fryer, Paul Heaton, Kevin Murphy, and I used to try to measure crack cocaine use across places and over time in U.S. cities and...
View ArticleThe New York Times examines why crime fell in New York City
In yesterday’s New York Times, Mike McIntyre writes about the reasons crime has fallen in New York City. Most of the article is about how Mayor Bloomberg claims credit for his police department. The...
View ArticleNews and Notes From Canada
I’ve just returned from a quick trip to British Columbia (specifically to the ski town of Whistler, to which one can only properly say “wow”), and a couple of things from western Canada caught my eye....
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How the Crack Dealer Became a Chef
Have you ever heard of Chef Jeff Henderson? Until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t either. That’s when our publicist mentioned him and his new book. (We have the same publisher.) Jeff grew up in L.A. and San...
View ArticleHello Hal: A Note From Your Editor
Greetings, Freakonomics community! This is your friendly neighborhood web editor, Melissa. Starting today, while Steven and Stephen will continue to post the same high-brow discussions of crack...
View ArticleAsk the Gang Guy: Q&A With Sudhir Venkatesh
Of all the stories we told in Freakonomics, the most popular was the section on the economics of crack cocaine. While it related a lot of particular facts about the crack trade, I believe that readers...
View ArticleShorter Sentences for Crack Cocaine
A couple of years ago, we wrote a column about crack cocaine, which ended with a discussion of the federal sentencing guidelines for crack vs. powder cocaine: This disparity has often been called...
View ArticleThe FREAK-est Links
Is use v. non-use of social networking sites leading to “digital inequality”? (Earlier) Study finds crowds can be influenced by 5% minority. Incarceration rates for crack-cocaine users on the rise....
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How Crack Cocaine Widened the Black-White Education Gap
(Photo: Valerie Everett) A new working paper (abstract; PDF) from William N. Evans, Timothy J. Moore, and Craig Garthwaite presents one explanation for the decline in black high-school graduation rates...
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