Freakonomics

If economics is a science primarily concerned with incentives, it is also—fortunately—a science with statistical tools to measure how people respond to those incentives.

The best way to get rid of cheating teachers, Duncan had decided, was to readminister the standardized exam.

The Ku Klux Klan—much like politicians or real-estate agents or stockbrokers—was a group whose power was derived in large part from the fact that it hoarded information.

What better way to defang a secret society than to make public its most secret information?

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.

A real-estate agent may see you not so much as an ally but as a mark.

The study found that an agent keeps her own house on the market an average ten extra days, waiting for a better offer, and sells it for over 3 percent more than your house.

It is the job of your real-estate agent, of course, to find the golden mean.

Her job is to convince you that a $300,000 offer is in fact a very good offer, even a generous one.

A savvy buyer will know this (or find out for himself once he sees the house), but to the sixty-five-year-old retiree who is selling his house, 'well maintained' might sound like a compliment.