The April “Freakonomics” column in The New York Times Magazine will address –you guessed it– taxes. It’s about how people hate the I.R.S. for the wrong reasons and will run Sunday, April 2nd. The article should be available online here by late Sat. night (4/1/06), and bonus information is available here.

It is with a warm heart and sore fingers that I write to let you all know that I mailed an additional 1500 bookplates this week. Those silly authors finally found the time, between frivolities like writing and researching, to sign their names a couple thousand times, and everyone who requested autographs before last month [...]

Our upcoming “Freakonomics” column in The New York Times Magazine is about how people hate the I.R.S. for the wrong reasons. The article should be available online here by late Sat. night (4/1/06), and we’ll also post an accompanying page elsewhere on this site with research data, etc.

Some of you have undoubtedly already seen this, but if you haven’t, take a look at what happens when compelling data meets beautiful (and useful) design: WorldMapper, “a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.” While there are a lot of interesting categories — tourism, [...]

In a sample of 13 African countries between 1999 and 2004, 52% of women surveyed say they think that wife beating is justified if she neglects the children; around 45% think it’s justified if she goes out without telling the husband or argues with him; 36% if she refuses sex, and 30% if she burns [...]

Yayi Boni, an economist who used to run the West African Development Bank, has been elected president of the African country of Benin. He is at least the second economist to have recently become president of an African nation, joining Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a [...]

A couple days ago, Levitt wrote on this blog that Tyler Cowen, half of the dynamic Marginal Revolution duo (along with Alex Tabarrok), will start writing a monthly economics column for the New York Times business section. I just wanted to add my congratulations — for George Mason University’s miraculous appearance in the Final Four, [...]

The answer is that they all blurb the new book Muzzled: From T-ball to Terrorism- True Stories that Should be Fiction written by my friend Michael Smerconish.
The book is an edgy and amusing series of vignettes about how political correctness has gone too far. The topics range from streaking at Princeton to Mumia Abu-Jamal [...]

Tyler Cowen of the economics blog MarginalRevolution is going to be taking over a spot in the rotation in the “Economics Scene” column of the business section of the New York Times. I really look forward to reading this.
Given the amount of blogging he does, he is unlikely to run out of [...]

I have two daughters adopted from China and it is an issue close to my heart.
Here’s a link to a story in the New York Times on identity issues for these adopted girls face. My wife and I decided to adopt two girls from China in the hope that having a Chinese sister would [...]

There is good news for all those craving a Freakonomics television fix. On Friday, March 24th, a segment is scheduled to run on Good Morning America addressing teacher incentives. The exact time is TBD, but watching ABC between 7:00am and 9:00am should keep you covered. Set those DVRs!

A recent undercover investigation by the BBC claims that real estate agents in the UK go to great lengths to exploit their informational advantage, including trumpeting fake offers, colluding with mortage brokers, and even tossing in a fake British passport with the property. It is an interesting article.
A quote in the article states, “Perhaps, [...]

We get a lot of different kind of e-mail response to our book: some friendly, some antagonistic, some curious, etc etc etc. This one, which came the other day, may be one of my all-time favorites:
Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. Your book was amazing! I loved it, but I found [...]

The Aplia Econ Blog, subtitled “News for Econ Students,” has just been launched. It’s the blog arm of Stanford economist Paul Romer’s business venture, Aplia, which aims to streamline, automate, and otherwise perfect the instruction of college-level economics.

The blog turned one today.
It was never meant to reach its first birthday. It was never supposed to exist at all. On a whim, Dubner suggested we do a blog. I was hesitant. He assured me that we would just do it for a few months after the book was [...]