But let me raise a series of toasts to its many, many coauthors: To Joyce Finan, my high-school math teacher, who told me that I’d never be any good at numbers because my handwriting was too messy. To Jerry Hausman, my MIT econometrics professor, who taught me that there are some proofs that aren’t worth knowing. To Bob Bennett, Bill Felstiner, and the American Bar Foundation, who helped fund my first Super Crunching tests of car negotiations. To my full-time data-crunching assistants, Fred Vars, Nasser Zakariya, Heidee Stoller, and most recently, Isra Bhatty. These trusting souls signed on for a year of nonstop crunching—usually on a dozen or more projects that were progressing simultaneously. Arlo Guthrie once said that it was hard for him to keep up his guitar skills when he had such talented side musicians. I know how he feels. To Orley Ashenfelter, Judy Chevalier, Dick Copaken, Esther Duflo, Zig Engelmann, Paul Gertler, Dean Karlin, Larry Katz, Steve Levitt, Jennifer Ruger, Lisa Sanders, Nina Sassoon, Jody Sindelar, Petra Todd, Joel Waldfogel, and the many other people who gave of their time to make this book better.
