Steven Levitt has decided to retire from Academia

(based on an Economist’s article) After 3 books (all in my library, but still not read), and a podcast series the “Freakonomics Radio” that I follow and (really) like, amongst other initiatives, Steven Levitt has decided to retire from Academia. He has played an important and relevant role in promoting the interest of economics in the general public with his highly captivating communication style, also helped and supported by his co-author Stephen Dubner. The bait to get the attention of a wider audience was the counter-intuitive findings he shared in his books, but in my opinion was the way he was able to explain them in a simple and easy to understand way that generated value and something one should takeaway. Since the beginning there were some claims that immediately should have made you flinch and challenge them, like the claim that the legalization of abortion 1973 in the US, led to a fall in crime rate in 90’ (an Occam’s Razor challenge to it would made you immediately be wary of such claim), but nonetheless you could also see the value of the approach to make economics more tangible in your daily life and with that bring it closer to a non-expert audience. The most worrisome, with Levitt and most of the academic work done is “Social Sciences” is that: “…A recent study by economists at the Federal Reserve found that less than half of the published papers they examined could be replicated, even when given help from the original authors….” In my opinion this due to the publish or perish mindset you currently have in academia, that results that the scientific method is put as a second priority, being the first to publish, if possible with something eye-catching, and only secondly if it is real and supported by empiric study and data! - Why “Freakonomics” failed to transform economics https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/03/21/why-freakonomics-failed-to-transform-economics from The Economist

- Pedro

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