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Levitt is known as a prolific author of research
papers on various topics, not all closely
connected to traditional economics. He is an
empirical researcher whose interests span also
politics, sociology and law. Some usual subjects
for Levitt are crime, abortion and sports. For
example, his An Economic Analysis of a
Drug-Selling Gang's Finances (2000) analyzes a
hand-written "accounting" of a criminal gang, and
draws conclusions about the income distribution
between gang members. His most controversial paper
is The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime
(2001).  In that paper, he demonstrates from
statistics that the legalization of abortion in
the US was followed approximately sixteen years
later by a reduction in crime, then argues that
unwanted children commit more crime than wanted
children and that the legalization of abortion
resulted in fewer unwanted children, and so the
legalization of abortion caused a reduction in
crime.

He won the John Bates Clark Medal in 2003.

In April 2005 his first book, Freakonomics
(coauthored with Stephen Dubner), came out and is
now a New York Times bestseller. They also have
started a blog available at
http://www.freakonomics.com www.freakonomics.com
where they discuss their book among other things.

See also: Legalized abortion and crime effect

== Selected works ==

* Freakonomics:  A Rogue Economist Explores the
Hidden Side of Everything William Morrow, May 2005
(with Stephen Dubner)
* The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime. 
Quarterly Journal of Economics, v116, n2 (May
2001): 379-420. (with John Donohue)
* An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's
Finances.  Quarterly Journal of Economics 115
(August 2000): 755-789. (with Sudhir Venkatesh). 
* Winning isn't Everything: Corruption in Sumo
Wrestling. American Economic Review. (with Mark
Duggan). 
* The Effect of Prison Population Size on Crime
Rates: Evidence from Prison Overcrowding
Litigation. 1996. Quarterly Journal of Economics
111:319-352. 

== External link ==
* http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/home.html
Prof. Levitt's Home Page at the University of
Chicago
*
http://www.timharford.com/favourites/oddnumbers.ht
m Profile of Steven Levitt in the Financial Times
*
http://www.stephenjdubner.com/journalism/economist
.html Profile of Steven Levitt in the New York
Times Magazine
* http://www.freakonomics.com Official
Freakonomics site and Levitt's Blog
*http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu The Initiative on
Chicago Price Theory