A number of economists have drawn wide attention in recent years by using methods of the field to explain a range of human behaviors not usually considered the province of the dismal science. So it was not surprising that an economics professor at the University of Calgary struck an unexpected chord of international reaction after dashing off a mock discussion paper that asked who was AC/DC’s better frontman, the late Bon Scott or his replacement, Brian Johnson.

Most readers thought the paper was serious. The professor, Rob Oxoby, raised the matter ostensibly as a means to inquire into the effectiveness of the Australian heavy-metal band’s music on students’ financial decision-making.

One economist who has made a cottage industry out of studies of such seemingly non-economic phenomena is Steven D. Levitt of the University of Chicago, a co-author of the best-selling book Freakonomics. On Monday he mentioned the AC/DC paper in his Freakonomics blog under the headline “This Is What Happens to People Who Listen to Too Much AC/DC …” The result was a deluge of e-mail for Mr Oxoby. Some were quite nasty, according to an article in the Edmonton Journal.

Mr. Oxoby contacted Mr Levitt, who posted a follow-up on Tuesday that said the paper was only a joke. Just for the record, Mr. Oxoby admitted to the Journal that he’s more partial to Ozzie Osbourne than to AC/DC. —Karen Birchard