Below is the first of four parts of a 1999 debate in�Slate�between U. of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the 2005 bestseller�Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, and myself, Steve Sailer. We discussed Levitt's most celebrated theory: Did the legalization of abortion in 1969-1973 cause the crime rate to... Read More

Below is the second of four parts of a 1999 debate in�Slate�between U. of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the 2005 bestseller�Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, and myself, Steve Sailer. We discussed Levitt's most celebrated theory: Did the legalization of abortion in 1969-1973 cause the crime rate to... Read More

Below is the third of four parts of a 1999 debate in�Slate�between U. of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the 2005 bestseller�Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, and myself, Steve Sailer. We discussed Levitt's most celebrated theory: Did the legalization of abortion in 1969-1973 cause the crime rate to... Read More

Below is the fourth and final part of a 1999 debate in Slate�between U. of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt, co-author of the 2005 bestseller Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, and myself, Steve Sailer. We discussed Levitt's most celebrated theory: Did the legalization of abortion in 1969-1973 cause the crime... Read More

Paul Shirley, a 6'10" white basketball journeyman and sportswriter, got fired from ESPN for blogging on FlipCollective that he wouldn't be donating to Haiti "for the same reason that I don't give money to homeless men on the street. Based on past experiences, I don’t think the guy with the sign that reads 'Need You’re... Read More

In National Review, Jim Manzi reviews economist John R. Lott's Freedomomics and takes a look at Steven D. Levitt's Freakonomics as well:I didn't know that about the famous "butterfly in Brazil" effect, but that is what I've been saying about Levitt's abortion-crime theory since 1999: it's beyond the power of contemporary social science to determine.

Here's the abstract of a paper in press by economist Ted Joyce, followed by Joyce's cogent explanation of why it's important to keep harping on this subject. A Simple Test of Abortion and CrimeTed JoyceBaruch College and Graduate CenterCity University of New YorkandNational Bureau of Economic ResearchForthcoming in Review of Economics and StatisticsA Simple Test... Read More

Did getting the lead out of gasoline, not legalized abortion, cause crime to fall? From the Washington Post: The theory offered by the economist, Rick Nevin, is that lead poisoning accounts for much of the variation in violent crime in the United States. It offers a unifying new neurochemical theory for fluctuations in the crime... Read More

In the WSJ: It's Not Enough to Be 'Wanted' Illegitimacy has risen despite--indeed, because of--legal abortion.BY JOHN R. LOTT JR. And here's a graph I made up a few years ago during the Freakonomics controversy. Hard to see much evidence that legalizing abortion increased the "wantedness" of babies like Steven D. Levitt claims these days,... Read More