On Sat, Nov 30, 2013 at 4:01 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote:
> In 2000, economist Steven Levitt and sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh > published an article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics about the > internal wage structure of a Chicago drug gang. This piece would later > serve as a basis for a chapter in Levitt’s (and Dubner’s) best seller > Freakonomics. [1] The title of the chapter, “Why drug dealers still live > with their moms”, was based on the finding that the income distribution > within gangs was extremely skewed in favor of those at the top, while > the rank-and-file street sellers earned even less than employees in > legitimate low-skilled activities, let’s say at McDonald’s. They > calculated 3.30 dollars as the hourly rate, that is, well below a living > wage (that’s why they still live with their moms). [2] > Not exactly on-topic, but I have always regarded Venkatesh's story about the drug gang with a great deal of skepticism. Has anyone ever verified the accuracy of what he reported from his field-work? Levitt of course is a fraud and a hack: http://shameproject.com/profile/steven-d-levitt/ -raghu.
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