Freakonomics Overrated?

Diane Coyle thinks Freakonomics is overrated;

Freakonomics, by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner (Penguin). Economics as freak show. Depressingly, this seems to be the only way to gain a wider audience for the empress of the social sciences, other than multinational bashing.

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Less breathless and more thoughtful about globalization than the earlier "The Lexus and The Olive Tree." But not as good as its author thinks and tending towards the banal.

Via Alex Tabarrok. He points out to her book titled, Sex, Drugs and Economics.

I think Diane’s new book The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters might be a good one.

Here’s a interview of her at RadioEconomics (podcast).

The reason why Freakonomics is not overrated; watch this Steven Levitt's talk. Tyler Cowen highly recommeds the book by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, the person who studied the drug gang that Levitt mentioned about.