Convergence Analysis on Ten Sub-Indexes of Economic Freedom

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transition of economic freedom indexes themselves among countries in the world instead of their economic effect. The three central questions of this study are: Do economic freedom sub-indexes converge? Do some sub-indexes of economic freedom display more clear-cut convergence when their index points are increasing over time? Which types of economic sub-indexes display faster rate of convergence? We examine these questions for individual components or sub-indexes of economic freedom. Analyses of sub-indexes of economic freedom are critical because each of these individual sub-indexes determines independently final value of the overall index. The answer to the first question varies by each specific sub-index. In particular, it would be misleading to draw any conclusion about individual sub-indexes from the convergence pattern of the overall index. The answer to the second question is that countries with increasing index points display much more clear-cut convergence. As for the third question, those sub-indexes receiving high index points from large number of countries exhibit faster rate of convergence. Several policy implications from this study are discussed in conclusion