CHAPTER 4 - WHERE HAVE ALL THE CRIMINALS GONE?

By

 

  • Levitt returns to the discussion of abortion in chapter 4 by citing Romania as an example.
  • After Nicolae Ceausescu became dictator in 1974, he made abortion illegal to increase the population of his nation. Romania had about four abortions per birth before the ban was implemented.
  • One year after the ban, Romanian birth rates doubled, and those children born after the ban were more likely to be criminals.
  • Ceausesus, however, was overthrown and killed in 1989 by protestors (the ones that would not have been born had Ceauseus not implemented his ban) and abortion became legal.
  • The Romanian abortion case was quite opposite of the one in the States.
  • There were many explanations proposed in the 1990s for the sudden drop in crime rates in the States, however only three of the eight theories were proven to be accurate, and the number one cause wasn't even mentioned.
  • "New policing strategies" was one of the famous theories but it was not even implemented well after crime dropped in places.
  • When it was acknowledged that a woman who didn't want a baby had a good reason for not wanting a child, abortion became legal in 1973.
  • In 1980, 1.6 million American women had abortions, and these women were mostly teenagers, and uneducated mothers living in poverty, all of which contributed to the development of a criminal child.
  • In the 1990s, crime rates fell as a result of abortions in the 1970s. Further analysis showed that states with higher abortion rates also experienced lower crime rates in the 1990s.
  • Ultimately, the author states that the most important takeaway of this chapter is how a subtle change can have a major impact.
  • According to him, people are more likely to connect with things they understand than theories and possibilities. As an example, citizens believed that policing strategies led to a drop in crime rates rather than abortion legalization.



Economics is a fascinating subject because it touches on almost every aspect of life. This makes it a very broad field, but also a very challenging one. If you want to get a good understanding of economics, then you'll need to spend some time reading about it. You can start by looking at these book summaries and recommendations.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CHAPTER 3 - UNBELIEVABLE STORIES ABOUT APATHY AND ALTRUISM

By
  Economics suggests that people are primarily self-interested and that they make decisions based on what will benefit them the most. However, this chapter is about altruism, which bucks that trend. However, recent studies and experiments have suggested that people may be more altruistic than originally thought, which has complicated the idea that people are rational, selfish beings who make decisions based solely on what will benefit them. The Dictator Game is one such experiment that has called into question the idea of human self-interest. The authors spend time discussing how people are not always as altruistic as one might think. People may help others for self-serving reasons, including reducing guilt, because they hope to get something in return, or because someone is watching. The authors mention a few different versions of the Dictator Game that were created by John List. These variants suggest that people are not as altruistic as what was originally thought. Though people...
Read more

CHAPTER 6 - WHAT MAKES A PERFECT PARENT? PART II

By
  Conventional wisdom suggests that naming is correlated with success, but the authors point out that this correlation extends much farther back than naming. In most cases, the names parents give their children reflect their social backgrounds and social classes.   The author recounts an incident involving a New York City man named Robert Lane who named his son "Winner" and his next son "Loser." Loser Lane succeeded in life, rising to the rank of a police officer in New York City, where he was nicknamed Lou by his colleagues. In contrast, Winner Lane has been arrested nearly 30 times. The author recalls another incident where a mother named her daughter Temptress, intending to call her Tempestt, and the girl later brought many men into the house while her mother was at work. Levitt then poses the question: does a child's name influence his life, or does his name reflect the lives of his parents? Giving a child a name is the first step in parents' belief that...
Read more

CHAPTER 1 - HOW IS A STREET PROSTITUTE LIKE A DEPARTMENT-STORE SANTA?

By
  Males have always had an advantage over females throughout history. However, the lives of women have improved dramatically, especially in developed nations in the 21st century. According to the earliest available statistics, 21 per cent of college students in the United States were female in 1872. The percentage has grown to 58 per cent today, and it's on the rise. Despite this, being a woman still comes with a high economic cost. In the United States, a woman who holds a bachelor's degree and works full-time earns about $47,000 a year, on average. In contrast, similar men make more than $66,000, a 40% premium. Prostitution, however, is a labour market women have always dominated.  Prostitutes in the United States were counted in 310 cities in 26 states in the early 1910s by the Department of Justice. According to the DOJ, one out of every 110 women was a prostitute. It is estimated that 85 per cent of prostitutes were in their twenties. One out of every 50 American women in...
Read more