How do incentives work? That’s the question that underlies this quirky documentary’s four main segments that consider whether it’s effective to bribe ninth graders to get better grades, why it is so hard to believe that sumo wrestlers (and Wall Street finance executives) cheat, whether legalizing abortion would cause crime rates to drop, and how the names people give their children can affect the economy. Bonus feature: brief interviews with
Freakonomics authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner on a variety of economics topics.
Warning: occasional profanity, semi-nudity. Grades 8 and up. Closed captioned. Color. 93 minutes. Magnolia. ©2010.
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