Economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner use data to answer odd questions about cheating teachers, drug dealers, crime and parenting. For anyone who likes to see conventional wisdom tested.
Author · 1 summary
Steven D. Levitt
American economist and author
- Born
- 29 May 1967 (age 59)
- Nationality
- American
- Occupation
- Economist, Author, Podcaster
- Known for
- Freakonomics, written with Stephen J. Dubner
- Wikipedia
- Read the article
About Steven D. Levitt
Steven D. Levitt grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He studied economics at Harvard and took his PhD at MIT in 1994. He then joined the University of Chicago, where he taught until he retired and is now professor emeritus. In 2003 he won the John Bates Clark Medal for the best American economist under 40.
His research uses data to answer questions that most economists left alone: whether sumo wrestlers fix matches, how a drug gang's finances work, and whether legal abortion cut crime in the 1990s. That last paper drew strong objections, and other economists found errors in its data; Levitt says the core result still holds.
In 2003 the journalist Stephen J. Dubner profiled him, and the two wrote Freakonomics (2005). The book argues that incentives are the key to modern life and that careful data can expose cheating and hidden motives. It sold millions of copies and led to three more books and the Freakonomics Radio network. Levitt hosted its podcast People I (Mostly) Admire from 2020 to 2025.
Books by Steven D. Levitt
New books, occasionally