WHEN TO ROB A BANK - THE FREAKOPEDIA
A Rogue Economist's Guide to the World
Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
Penguin Random House;
387 pages; Rs 625
Ticketless travel on buses and trains is pretty common in India. Since ticket collectors conduct random checks, many passengers choose to brave the fear of getting caught and having to pay a fine. But this is merely cheating; the ingenious thing to do is devise a strategy to minimise your losses if you are caught.
One creative commuter on Mumbai's local trains devised an insurance policy to minimise the fine he and other ticketless travellers would have to incur if they got caught.
The scheme was beautifully designed. Passengers would pay Rs 500 to join an organisation of ticketless travellers. If one got caught, the passenger would pay the fine and turn in his receipt to the organisation, which would refund the entire amount.
Since ticket inspections are random, the chances of getting caught are low. But by lowering the penalty that "cheaters" would have to incur if they got caught, the scheme created an added incentive to travel ticketless. The inventiveness is truly remarkable and it is just one of the many stories that Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the duo who brought us the entertainingly original Freakonomics, write about in their latest book.
The Freakonomics phenomenon began a decade ago when Mr Dubner, a journalist, travelled to Chicago to write about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained, award-winning economist Mr Levitt. The meeting led to an unexpected partnership between the two.
Freakonomics was essentially a data-driven exploration of issues that culminated in fascinating stories that often challenged conventional wisdom. It was a collection of facts and figures about cheating teachers, baby names, drug dealers, which went on to sell over five million copies worldwide and topped the New York Times's best-seller list.
The authors, aided by Mr Levitt's economics background, explored the role of incentives in everyday lives, turning at times to concepts that are well beyond the understanding of a lay person. Their novelty lay in spotting questions that others might not necessarily have thought of asking and then answering them with dazzling ingenuity.
The success of the first book led to a second instalment - Superfreakonomics - followed by a blog, a documentary film and a radio show. Now, to mark the 10th anniversary of their first collaboration, the duo is back, but this time without the appeal that made them a household name. When to Rob a Bank is a compilation of carefully curated posts from the Freakonomics blog, touching upon a range of issues.
For those who haven't read the blog, the topics are as amusing as ever: why it is not in Pepsi's interest to steal Coke's formula; what's the best way to cut gun deaths; why we don't tip airline stewardesses; whether it's time for a sex tax, child car seats, reforming the education system, bribing kids to try harder on tests and so on - quirky but intriguing questions.
True to form, the authors do not shy away from stating their views, even though they might not be politically correct. For example, in "An alternative to democracy" the authors propose that, unlike in the current voting system, people be allowed to vote multiple times in return for a price. An immediate criticism, as the authors concede, is that the system would be geared in favour of the rich. But not to be weighed down by the demands of political correctness, they argue that the same is true of the current system and "if the rich do consume more of everything, why shouldn't they consume more political influence?"
Attempts to solve some problems go nowhere. Incentives, they realise, may not always end up altering behaviour as they were intended to. As Will Masters, an economist at Tufts University, succinctly writes, "behavior is as behavior does, maybe some things are just because much of life's a mystery, a habit due to history".
Though the writing style is easy to digest, the book pales in comparison with the earlier ones. Provocative investigations into the economics of everyday things have been replaced by superficial musings on random topics. It is disappointing that the book seems to have been designed to amuse rather than illuminate. The feeling after reading it is one of disappointment. It is sad that the authors chose to mark their 10th anniversary this way rather than treat their fans to a more researched treat.
Oh, and when should you rob a bank? Well, it turns out that the best time to do so is apparently in the morning because the average take is $5,180, rather than in the afternoon, when the take drops to $3,705.
