\u201cWow, he\u2019s a rock star,\u201d said an audience member at the Radcliffe Gymnasium as she watched the afternoon\u2019s speaker pose for photos and sign autographs for a steady stream of admirers.<\/p>\n
But this pop icon in a dark blue blazer and sensible shoes wasn’t a singing sensation, but an economist.<\/p>\n
Using data and statistics, Steven Levitt<\/a>, professor of economics at the University of Chicago<\/a>, makes a habit of \u201cbringing economics into our lives.\u201d Prostitutes, cheating teachers, real estate agents, sumo wrestlers, and even drug dealers are part of his domain (as are the names that people give their children). In 2005 Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner<\/a> of The New York Times<\/a> authored the best-seller \u201cFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n “I took on a bunch of topics \u2026 that nobody else wanted to study, and I think it\u2019s exactly the reason \u2026 I\u2019ve been able to succeed,\u201d Levitt told the crowd in his remarks Monday (March 22). \u201cIf I tried to take the real topics, the hard questions that real economists are doing, I don\u2019t think I would have had any success whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes his topics prove unpopular. In one of his most controversial papers, which became part of the 2005 book, Levitt examined the links between abortion and crime. He argued that the legalization of abortion in the 1970s corresponded with a drop in the crime rate about 20 years later, since those “unwanted” children \u2014 who Levitt said would have been more likely to grow up under difficult circumstances and subsequently would have been more likely to become criminals \u2014 hadn’t been born.<\/p>\n His latest book, \u201cSuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance,\u201d has been widely criticized for its claims about climate science. \u00a0During his talk, the author addressed critics who have challenged the book\u2019s chapter on global warming, noting that he and co-author Dubner took on the topic in a \u201cpeculiar way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t writing about climate science,\u201d said Levitt. \u201cWe were writing about the economics of fighting global warming.\u201d<\/p>\n The economist was at Harvard to take part in the 2009-10 Dean\u2019s Lecture Series at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study<\/a>. \u00a0The lectures are part of the institute\u2019s Academic Engagement Programs <\/a>(AEP), which sponsor projects with Harvard faculty, Radcliffe Institute fellows, and Harvard students in scholarly and research endeavors. The AEP also sponsors lectures, conferences, and symposia.<\/p>\n The 1989 Harvard graduate said he knew early on that economics was his calling. Leaving an introductory class on the topic that had his friends perplexed, he remembered being amazed that they taught \u201csuch easy things at Harvard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor me [the class] was just mostly putting names on the things \u2026 I had always thought. I had always, I guess, thought like an economist, I just didn\u2019t know it.\u201d<\/p>\n “Sometimes you\u2019ve just got to go with the only thing you are good at,” Levitt continued, describing how he was nicknamed \u201cthe rational man\u201d by a classmate, and he created an algorithm to assign his 12 Harvard roommates to three rooms. He even used his economic prowess at the racetrack while in college, employing computer data to figure out which horses were more likely to win.<\/p>\n