Steven David "Steve" Levitt is a prominent American economist best known for his work on crime, especially the link between legalized abortion and rates of crime. He is currently the Alvin H. Baum professor of economics at the University of Chicago, director of the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy published by the University of Chicago Press, winner of the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal. He is one of the laymen's most well-known economists, having co-authored Freakonomics (2005), the best-selling book. In 2006, Levitt was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shape Our World" Time Magazines.
