Freakonomics - A Timely read

Over the last one month I was mulling over how to learn more about Taxation. I even request couple of CA's but didn't get any response. May be they are very busy now.

Why do I want to learn more about taxation just before I get into a one year rigorous MBA program at ISB? My reason a slightly unconventional one, in fact, it is not even related to my job or my career. Let me explain:

I am currently working in HR department and specifically in the area of Learning and Development. L&D is closely associated with another function of HR that is Performance Management. To Manage and improve performance one of the methods is to incentivize desired behavior and punish undesired behavior. I started wondering that why can't government do the same and then I realised that it is already doing so using different types of taxes. If the government is already doing this then why is it unable to make everyone do what it wants them to do ideally? This could be due to the fact fact that like the KRA's - Key Result Areas, in organizations, government uses policies and laws and both suffer from the same problem. The policy makers cannot accurately predict all the outcomes and in a bi country it becomes further more difficult. Another challenge the government faces is that it even can't do piloting.

Now let me come back to the title. While I was thinking about how should I proceed about learning more about taxes, I happened to see the "Freakonomics, written by Stephen D. Levitt, book at our library. Our librarian was earlier working at ISB and he mentioned that this book is a part of the curriculum at ISB. Though little sceptical about the readability of the book initially, I liked the cover and the introduction and decided to borrow the book.

After going through about 50 pages I realized what a timing it is to read Freakonomics. This book was talking exactly the same things I was thinking about. It was talking about the economic and social incentives and how they drive behavior of people. I have finished reading about one third and in particularly liked the research done by Sudhir Venkatesh about the Drug world in US.

I have a hobby which is similar to what Venkatesh did, observe different kinds of people. Some of my observations include - How children of beggars entertain themselves, the Business model of a boiled peanut seller, life of a widow living with son and daughter in law, and many more. I even studied many of my close friends closely but will not be able share anything on this blog, I need to take their permission before I do so. I shall try and put down my observations one after another.