New PRI Report on the Benefits of Economic Freedom
Pacific Research Institute has just released a new study, "The Sizzle of Economic Freedom," that summarizes the empirical literature regarding the benefits of liberty. There is a large and growing body of peer-reviewed academic work, which uses rankings such as the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World in order to test whether liberty per se is a significant explanatory variable on areas as diverse of GDP growth, literacy rates, and even environmental quality. (Guess what? The results look good for freedom.) As a co-author of the study, I was surprised by how much work has been done in this area. Here is the press release, and here is the actual study (pdf).
Comments (5)
Nice to see.
Published: January 7, 2009 6:02 PM
Wait... you mean it wasn't obvious to everyone?
Good thing the secret's out!
Published: January 7, 2009 6:29 PM
I just sent the above press release to the members of the Chamber of Commerce in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In general these individuals should be receptive. I believe it would be a good idea for others to send this press release to the members of their local chapter of the Chamber of Commerce.
We are all educating ourselves and others and that is how we can get the ideological change that is necessary for societies to adopt classical liberalism.
Published: January 7, 2009 7:42 PM
Great job. It should also be noted that greater economic freedom leads to a more tolerant society. Hopefully, our next president and his followers will eventually figure out that he wouldn't have gotten where he is without the economic freedoms that are blamed for many of today's problems.
Published: January 7, 2009 9:26 PM
Great. Now tell those nice folks over at PRI (with whom it seems like you have an "in") to release Bruce Benson's book, The Enterprise of Law, to the world as a free downloadable PDF.
Published: January 8, 2009 9:16 AM