Objective: find a way to measure economic freedom and explore the connection between it and other variables

Objective: find a way to measure economic freedom and explore the connection between it and other variables

• Objective: find a way to measure economic freedom and explore the connection between it and other variables

• 25 year project

• Led by the late Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman, and Michael Walker

• Involved 60 of the world’s top scholars, including three Nobel Laureates

• An annual compilation of data representing factors which make a country economically free

• Authors: James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Joshua Hall

• A compendium of 42 government policies affecting economic freedom based on objective data or independent surveys

• A ranking of 152 countries representing 95% of the world’s population according to the extent to which they permit their citizens to be economically free

• Now a collaboration of Institutes in 85 nations and terrritories

Individuals have economic freedom when property they acquire without the use of force, fraud, or theft is protected from physical invasions by others and they are free to use, exchange, or give their property as long as their actions do not violate the identical rights of others. An index of economic freedom should measure the extent to which rightly acquired property is protected and individuals are engaged in voluntary transactions.

• Individuals have economic freedom when property they acquire without the use of force, fraud, or theft is protected from physical invasions by others and they are free to use, exchange, or give their property as long as their actions do not violate the identical rights of others. An index of economic freedom should measure the extent to which rightly acquired property is protected and individuals are engaged in voluntary transactions.

• James Gwartney et al. 1996

• Size of government and taxation

• Private property and the rule of law

• Soundness of money

• Trade regulation and tariffs

• Regulation of business, labour and capital markets

Economic rights are fundamental rights in the sense that without them there can be no political freedom or civil freedoms

• Economic rights are fundamental rights in the sense that without them there can be no political freedom or civil freedoms

• They are a prerequisite for growth and development

• They are a prerequisite for broader human development

Economic Freedom

• Economic Freedom

• Increases prosperity for all

• Reduces poverty

• Increases other freedoms

• Improves quality of life