ECON712/912: Comprehensive Analysis of Steven Levitt's Economics Work

This report summarizes the significant contributions of Steven Levitt, an influential American economist, particularly in the fields of crime, politics, and economics. Levitt is renowned for his work on the impact of legalized abortion on crime rates, his analysis of crime-related factors such as prison population and police hiring, and his contributions to economic theory through his book Freakonomics. The report details his controversial findings, including the argument that legalized abortion led to a reduction in crime rates, and examines his work on campaign spending, federal spending, and the median voter theorem. While Levitt's research has faced criticism, his findings have had a notable impact on crime reduction strategies and political management in the United States, as well as providing valuable insights for economists. The analysis concludes that Steven Levitt's work has been beneficial in various areas, especially in the field of crime, and that his publications continue to offer additional benefits for understanding his contributions.

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Steven Levitt
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Steve Levitt is an economist in America whose work has been influential in the field of crime
and for that; he received the John Bates Clark Medal 2003. He is the founder of the TCG group
and chosen as the “100 people who shape our world” in 2006 Time magazine’s (Media, 2018).
Levitt contributed to various field mainly related to economics, politics, crime, and sports. He
contributed to reducing the crime rate in the US by introducing the law of legal abortion in the
country. The main contribution of Steve Levitt is on field of effect of criminal activities that
includes analyzing the effect of police hiring, prison population and also impact of the legal
status of the abortion on the crime rate in the country.
Steven Levitt contributed through providing different concepts on the economics in his book
Freakonomics. The important concepts in Freakonomics are information symmetry, correlation
of crime rates with other aspects, parents choices effect on children’s life and the idea of
incentives are few of the concepts that are given by Levitt. In his career, the main and
controversial finding is the impact of legalized abortion on crime. He proves that this new law in
the United States reduced the crime rate in the country and explained that unwanted children
are the reason behind increasing the crime rate, and then argues that making law for legalized
abortion resulted in unwanted crime rate thus resultant in the reduction of many criminal
activities. Levitt also works on the field of law and politics that includes an examination of the
effects of the prison population, availability of LoJack anti-theft devices, police hiring, criminal
age, finances of a drug gang, the link between drunk driving and accidental cases and effects of
campaign spending (Dean, 2015).
Under the field of crime, he has contributed in following ways that include formulation of law
to make abortion a legal activity in the country, for that Levitt states that due to
implementation of the law there is a reduction of 20% in the crime rate in between 1997-2014
(Levitt, 2017). Another problem that is highlighted by Levitt is prison population; he stated that
decreasing the population of prison by one percent might increase the crime of robbery, theft,
assault, and rape by fifteen percent per year (Skousen, 2016). Furthermore, he finds that crime
at the age of maturity as less to occur because deterrence plays an essential role in the decision
of committing a crime by the criminals and he also analyzed a unique database of the financial

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activities of drug selling street gang and their motivation behind joining the drug gangs (New,
2019). Many economists criticized the research paper of Levitt on abortion legalization.
Theodore Joyce and Christopher Foote argued that there is no impact of the law on crime rate
that results were due to statistical errors. Furthermore they argued that abortion increased the
violent crime rate instead of decreasing it and it was found that there was no change in other
criminal activities (Ausch, 2016).
Under the field of politics, he works on concepts like effects of campaign spending, the effects
of federal spending, and the median voter theorem. In 1994, Levitt highlights the concept of
campaign spending and concluded that it has less impact on election outcomes in the country.
In relation to federal spending and elections, he develops an instrument and finds that this
benefits the congressional incumbents. He finds that additional spending of $100 per capita is
worth as much as 2% of the vote (Gale, 2015). In relation to the concept of median voter
theorem, he states a methodology for consistently estimating the relative weights in a senator
function and finds that senator owns perspective is the main determinant of roll call voting
patterns.
All these contributions in the field of crime and politics by Steven Levitt have proven to be
beneficial for the world. Due to his findings in the field of crime, the overall crime rate at the
national level has been reduced and the political findings help the United States in the election
campaign and improve the management during the election period (Donohue & Levitt, 2019).
It is concluded from the above study and analysis that Steven Levitt contribution affected in the
world progress and proves to be beneficial in many areas especially in the field of crime. In
looking into his publications Freakonomics, Think like a Freak and Superfreakonomics proves to
be additional benefits for presenting his work in front of the world. In spite of facing many
critics from different authors on various findings, he has proven the concepts with much
evidence and analysis. So from the above facts and analysis, it is known that Steven Levitt
contributed to various fields in his tenure and works on different areas to solve the problems in
politics and crime. His contribution will be of additional benefit for the economist to study more
in these fields.

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References
Ausch, R., 2016. Methodological Problems with the Academic Sources of Popular Psychology. London:
Rowman & Littlefield.
Dean, M., 2015. Freakonomics 10 years on: Stephen J Dubner and Steven D Levitt on what they got right
and wrong. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/15/freakonomics-10-years-on-stephen-
dubner-steven-levitt-interview
[Accessed 3 June 2019].
Donohue, J. J. & Levitt, S. D., 2019. The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime over the Last Two
Decades. Law and Economics, 112(6), pp. 46-58.
Gale, C. L., 2015. A study guide for Levitt & Dubner Freaknomics: A Rogue economist explores the hidden
side of everything. US: Cengage Learnng.
Levitt, S., 2017. The Economics of Crime. Journal of Political Economy, 125(6), pp. 1920-1925.
Media, M., 2018. Summary of Steven D. Levitt’s Freakonomics by Milkyway Media. US: Milkyway Media.
New, M. J., 2019. More on the ‘Abortion Cuts Crime’ Debate. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/more-on-the-abortion-cuts-crime-debate/
[Accessed 3 June 2019].
Skousen , M., 2016. The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers. US:
Routledge.