By Derek Berry
Special to THE DAILY

The success of “Freakonomics” rekindled interest in “pop econ” books and now Steven Landsburg, who popularized the genre in the 1990s, has a new entry destined to spark more debate.

Books like this fall into two categories: those that explain basic economic concepts in simple terms and those that attempt to explain the world around us with economic theories.

Landsburg’s book falls into the latter category.

In “More Sex Is Safer Sex,” Landsburg attempts to solve a multitude of problems, from the AIDS crisis to the jury system, using current economic research methods.

While the title of the book and the topics covered guarantee this book will generate some of the same “buzz” enjoyed by “Freakonomics,” there is one telling difference in the two books: “Freakonomics” was written with the help of a journalist, while Landsburg wrote “More Sex” on his own.

This is an important distinction because Landsburg’s book would have benefited greatly from having someone around to remind him of his target audience — the public.

One of the best things about the art/science of economics is the ability to use its “unconventional wisdom” (to borrow Landsburg’s phrase) to explain what most would consider non-economic issues.

Landsburg does a wonderful job of this, but I feel he leaves out too much of the explanation of how he makes the leap from, for example, a basic point about networking theory to the conclusion that more sex (by the right kind of people) is the way to stop the AIDS epidemic.

Of course the book would have been twice as long if he had done so, but it would have been a much more useful book to the general reader.

As an economist, I enjoyed the way Landsburg made connections between disparate research areas and arrived at simple, yet elegant, solutions.

Among the “surprising” insights offered by this book: population growth should be welcomed, not feared; misers are good for the economy; child labor may not be exploitative; and government waste could be reduced if we got to vote in contests in other districts.

“More Sex” is full of “Huh, I never thought of it that way” moments. For that, Landsburg deserves much credit.

Ultimately, though, I fear the lack of background explanation may outweigh the “eureka” moments and reinforce the negative opinion many have of economics.

If, though, you enjoy thinking “outside the box” and you’re willing to believe the conventional wisdom might be wrong, well this could be one of your favorite books of the year.

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