The Boundaries of a Neglected Relationship: Corruption and Economic Freedom

This article examines the influence of economic freedom on the wider area of institutional performance. In particular, it examines a relatively neglected dimension of correlation between economic freedom and corruption. While economic freedom has been studied from the perspective of its interrelation-ship with various critical dimensions of life and science, such as business-cycle volatility, unemployment, growth, institutions, and homicide, the main inquiry of the present article involves the direct influence of economic freedom on institutional performance, as measured by institutional effectiveness in reducing or dismantling corrupt behavior. We include a review of the relevant literature, and our analysis is based on authoritative empirical data. The geographical scope of the analysis is the countries of the Western Balkan region.