Even if you are not a student of Economics, you are almost surely familiar with Steven Levitt and his book, Freakonomics. Levitt has assumed a pop star status in the Economics community over the last couple years. While he has mass appeal most of his research is controversial and is heavily criticized.
For those of you that enjoyed his book, check out his latest installment in the NY Times. In this column he discusses hospital hygiene, in particular hand washing. It is an interesting narrative starting with the identification of a problem (low hand washing rates amongst doctors) and ending with the implementation of an ingenious incentive to remedy the problem.
What I found most interesting about this article is the limited scope of the research. The research only covers one hospital, which leaves me thinking that if I go to my local hospital there is a high chance that my doctor will have filthy hands and I probably have a higher chance of contracting more germs in the doctors office than getting cured.
*Here's a video of Levitt explaining his research on crack cocaine and gangs
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