This paper constructs a new measure of the quality of the legal system and property rights by U.S. state, combining five pieces of data to develop a novel measure of institutional quality. It integrates this measure to the Economic Freedom of North America index to give a more complete...

This paper explores the relationship between country membership in major intergovernmental organizations and economic freedom. While claiming no broad theoretically-bound robust causal mechanism, I use fixed effects models to find baseline results finding a correspondence between economic...

Do right-wing or left-wing governments impact economic freedom over time? While rightwing governments often profess an affinity for free markets, intellectual proponents of free markets frequently downplay the importance of the identity of politicians for political outcomes, or question the...

This paper tests the hypothesis that the presence of economic inequality may lead to erosions of economic freedom. Using Economic Freedom of the World as a measure of free economic institutions, it finds that a one standard deviation increase in the gini coefficient reduces the presence of free...

A large literature has found positive associations between economic freedom and income, growth, and a variety of other desirable outcomes. This paper surveys the literature that seeks to explain the causes of economic freedom. Some of the most consistent findings in this literature are that...

<I>Economic Freedom of the World</I>, an economic index published by the Fraser Institute, has seen wide use inside and outside academia. Certain data issues arise, however, when complete data are unavailable. This paper proposes to mitigate or eliminate many of these issues by filling in the missing...</i>

A large empirical literature has found positive effects of economic freedom on economic outcomes, such as output and per capita growth. However, several variables in the index are very likely to decline in conjunction with recessions. In the absence of these variables, does the well-studied...