What is Economic Freedom?
Economic freedom, or economic liberty, is the ability of people of a society to take economic actions. This is a term used in economic and policy debates as well as in the philosophy of economics. One approach to economic freedom comes from the liberal tradition emphasizing free markets, free trade, and private property under free enterprise. Another approach to economic freedom extends the welfare economics study of individual choice, with greater economic freedom coming from a larger set of possible choices. Other conceptions of economic freedom include freedom from want and the freedom to engage in collective bargaining.
The liberal free-market viewpoint defines economic liberty as the freedom to produce, trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force, fraud or theft. This is embodied in the rule of law, property rights and freedom of contract, and characterized by external and internal openness of the markets, the protection of property rights and freedom of economic initiative. There are several indices of economic freedom that attempt to measure free market economic freedom. Based on these rankings, correlative studies have found higher economic growth to be correlated with higher scores on the country rankings. With regards to other measures such as equality, corruption, political and social violence and their correlation to economic freedom, it has been argued that the economic freedom indices conflate unrelated policies and policy outcomes to conceal negative correlations between economic growth and economic freedom in some subcomponents.
The cornerstones of economic freedom are (1) personal choice, (2) voluntary exchange coordinated by markets, (3) freedom to enter and compete in markets, and (4) protection of persons and their property from aggression by others. 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. Individuals are free to choose, trade, and cooperate with others, and compete as they see fit.
Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital, and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.
What Does Economic Freedom Mean?
Economic freedom is a characteristic that a particular economic system might posses or not. For example, capitalist systems are normally the ones that promote more economic freedom, compared with communist or socialist systems. This freedom can be practiced through free markets with a low level of government participation, free trade and adequate private property protection. On the other hand, economic freedom can also be guaranteed by having a diversified market where consumers have many options to choose from to fulfill a particular need.
What are the Benefits of Economic Freedom?
Economic freedom brings greater prosperity. The Index of Economic Freedom documents the positive relationship between economic freedom and a variety of positive social and economic goals. The ideals of economic freedom are strongly associated with healthier societies, cleaner environments, greater per capita wealth, human development, democracy, and poverty elimination.
How do You Measure Economic Freedom?
We measure economic freedom based on 12 quantitative and qualitative factors, grouped into four broad categories, or pillars, of economic freedom:
- Rule of Law (property rights, government integrity, judicial effectiveness)
- Government Size (government spending, tax burden, fiscal health)
- Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom)
- Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom)
Each of the twelve economic freedoms within these categories is graded on a scale of 0 to 100. A country’s overall score is derived by averaging these twelve economic freedoms, with equal weight being given to each.
What is an Index of Economic Freedom?
The Index of Economic Freedom takes a comprehensive view of economic freedom. Some of the aspects of economic freedom that are evaluated are concerned with a country’s interactions with the rest of the world (for example, the extent of an economy’s openness to global investment or trade). Most, however, focus on policies within a country, assessing the liberty of individuals to use their labor or finances without undue restraint and government interference.
Each of the measured aspects of economic freedom plays a vital role in promoting and sustaining personal and national prosperity. All are complementary in their impact, however, and progress in one area is often likely to reinforce or even inspire progress in another. Similarly, repressed economic freedom in one area (for example, a lack of respect for property rights) may make it much more difficult to achieve high levels of freedom in other categories.
An index of economic freedom measures jurisdictions against each other in terms of trade freedom, tax burden, judicial effectiveness, and so on. These factors may be weighted according to their influence on economic freedom and compiled into a single score that allows for a ranking. The ranking can be done on a country basis or can look at wider regions or smaller sub-national units like states.
The most widely referenced index of economic freedom is produced by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative American think tank. The Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, also publishes a well-known index of economic freedom.
The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom scores countries based on twelve factors:
- Property rights
- Judicial effectiveness
- Government integrity
- Tax burden
- Government spending
- Fiscal health
- Business freedom
- Labor freedom
- Monetary freedom
- Trade freedom
- Investment freedom
- Financial freedom
A country’s scores in each area are then compiled into a single score, according to which countries are ranked from most (highest score) to least free. It should be noted that some of these categories are ideologically loaded: what appeals to a laissez-faire economist as a high degree of labor freedom might strike a liberal economist as a lack of worker protection, for example.
The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom has pointed out some important correlations that should encourage nations to try to improve their scores over time. The most important is the observation that people living in countries categorized as free or mostly free enjoy higher incomes than those living in lower scoring nations. The disparity between the best and worst nations is more than six times, meaning someone in an economically free nation makes six times more than someone in an economically repressed nation. Related to this income gap, there is also a correlation between economic freedom and GDP growth, as well as higher standard of living and a general rule of law for citizens.
Assessing Economic Freedom
The 12 aspects of economic freedom measured in the Index are grouped into four broad categories:
- Rule of law (property rights, judicial effectiveness, and government integrity);
- Government size (tax burden, government spending, and fiscal health);
- Regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, and monetary freedom); and
- Market openness (trade freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom).
Rule of Law
Property Rights
In a functioning market economy, the ability to accumulate private property and wealth is a central motivating force for workers and investors. The recognition of private property rights and an effective rule of law to protect them are vital features of a fully functioning market economy. Secure property rights give citizens the confidence to undertake entrepreneurial activity, save their income, and make long-term plans because they know that their income, savings, and property (both real and intellectual) are safe from unfair expropriation or theft.
Property rights are a primary factor in the accumulation of capital for production and investment. Secure titling is key to unlocking the wealth embodied in real estate, making natural resources available for economic use, and providing collateral for investment financing. It is also through the extension and protection of property rights that societies avoid the “tragedy of the commons”, the phenomenon that leads to the degradation and exploitation of property that is held communally and for which no one is accountable. A key aspect of the protection of property rights is the enforcement of contracts. The voluntary undertaking of contractual obligations is the foundation of the market system and the basis for economic specialization, gains from commercial exchange, and trade among nations. Even-handed government enforcement of private contracts is essential to ensuring equity and integrity in the marketplace.
Judicial Effectiveness
Well-functioning legal frameworks protect the rights of all citizens against infringement of the law by others, including by governments and powerful parties. As an essential component of the rule of law, judicial effectiveness requires efficient and fair judicial systems to ensure that laws are fully respected, with appropriate legal actions taken against violations.
Judicial effectiveness, especially for developing countries, may be the area of economic freedom that is most important in laying the foundations for economic growth, and in advanced economies, deviations from judicial effectiveness may be the first signs of serious problems that will lead to economic decline.
There is plenty of evidence from around the world that an honest, fair, and effective judicial system is a critical factor in empowering individuals, ending discrimination, and enhancing competition. In the never-ending struggle to improve the human condition and achieve greater prosperity, an institutional commitment to the preservation and advancement of judicial effectiveness is critical.
Government Integrity
In a world characterized by social and cultural diversity, practices regarded as corrupt in one place may simply reflect traditional interactions in another. For example, small informal payments to service providers or even to government officials may be regarded variously as a normal means of compensation, a “tip” for unusually good service, or a corrupt form of extortion.
While such practices may indeed constrain an individual’s economic freedom, their impact on the economic system as a whole is likely to be modest. Of far greater concern is the systemic corruption of government institutions by such practices as bribery, nepotism, cronyism, patronage, embezzlement, and graft. Though not all are crimes in every society or circumstance, these practices erode the integrity of government wherever they are practiced. By allowing some individuals or special interests to gain government benefits at the expense of others, they are grossly incompatible with the principles of fair and equal treatment that are essential ingredients of an economically free society.
There is a direct relationship between the extent of government intervention in economic activity and the prevalence of corruption. In particular, excessive and redundant government regulations provide opportunities for bribery and graft. Corrupt practices like bribery and graft, in turn, are detrimental to economic growth and development.
In addition, government regulations or restrictions in one area may create informal or black markets in another. For example, by imposing numerous burdensome barriers to conducting business, including regulatory red tape and high transaction costs, a government can incentivize bribery and encourage illegitimate and secret interactions that compromise the transparency that is essential for the efficient functioning of a free market.
Government Size
Tax Burden
All governments impose fiscal burdens on economic activity through taxation and borrowing. Governments that permit individuals and businesses to keep and manage a larger share of their income and wealth for their own benefit and use, however, maximize economic freedom.
The higher the government’s share of income or wealth, the lower the individual’s reward for his or her economic activity and the lower the incentive to undertake work at all. Higher tax rates reduce the ability of individuals and firms to pursue their goals in the marketplace and thereby lower the level of overall private-sector activity.
Individual and corporate income tax rates are an important and direct constraint on an individual’s economic freedom and are reflected as such in the Index, but they are not a comprehensive measure of the tax burden. Governments impose many other indirect taxes, including payroll, sales, and excise taxes, as well as tariffs and value-added taxes (VATs). In the Index of Economic Freedom, the burden of these taxes is captured by measuring the overall tax burden from all forms of taxation as a percentage of total gross domestic product (GDP).
Government Spending
The cost, size, and intrusiveness of government taken together are a central economic freedom issue that is measured in the Index in a variety of ways. Government spending comes in many forms, not all of which are equally harmful to economic freedom. Some government spending (for example, to provide infrastructure, fund research, or improve human capital) may be considered investment. Government also spends on public goods, the benefits of which accrue broadly to society in ways that markets cannot price appropriately.
All government spending, however, must eventually be financed by higher taxation and entails an opportunity cost. This cost is the value of the consumption or investment that would have occurred had the resources involved been left in the private sector.
Excessive government spending runs a great risk of crowding out private economic activity. Even if an economy achieves faster growth through more government spending, such economic expansion tends to be only temporary, distorting the market allocation of resources and private investment incentives. Even worse, a government’s insulation from market discipline often leads to bureaucracy, lower productivity, inefficiency, and mounting public debt that imposes an even greater burden on future generations.
Fiscal Health
One of the clearest indicators of the extent to which a government respects the principle of limited government is its budget. By delineating priorities and allocating resources, a budget signals clearly the areas in which a government will intervene in economic activity and the extent of that intervention. Beyond that, however, a budget reflects a government’s commitment (or lack thereof) to sound financial management of resources, which is both essential for dynamic long-term economic expansion and critical to the advancement of economic freedom.
Widening deficits and a growing debt burden, both of which are direct consequences of poor government budget management, lead to the erosion of a country’s overall fiscal health. Deviations from sound fiscal positions often disturb macroeconomic stability, induce economic uncertainty, and thus limit economic freedom.
Debt is an accumulation of budget deficits over time. In theory, debt financing of public spending could make a positive contribution to productive investment and ultimately to economic growth. Debt could also be a mechanism for positive macroeconomic countercyclical interventions or even long-term growth policies. On the other hand, high levels of public debt may have numerous negative impacts such as raising interest rates, crowding out private investment, and limiting government’s flexibility in responding to economic crises. Mounting public debt driven by persistent budget deficits, particularly spending that merely boosts government consumption or transfer payments, often undermines overall productivity growth and leads ultimately to economic stagnation rather than growth.
Regulatory Efficiency
Business Freedom
An individual’s ability to establish and run an enterprise without undue interference from the state is one of the most fundamental indicators of economic freedom. Burdensome and redundant regulations are the most common barriers to the free conduct of entrepreneurial activity. By increasing the costs of production, regulations can make it difficult for entrepreneurs to succeed in the marketplace.
Although many regulations hinder business productivity and profitability, the ones that most inhibit entrepreneurship are often those that are associated with licensing new businesses. In some countries, as well as many states in the United States, the procedure for obtaining a business license can be as simple as mailing in a registration form with a minimal fee. In Hong Kong, for example, one can obtain a business license by filling out a single form, and the process can be completed in a few hours. In other economies, such as India and parts of South America, the process of obtaining a business license can take much longer and involve endless trips to government offices and repeated encounters with officious and sometimes corrupt bureaucrats.
Once a business is open, government regulation may interfere with the normal decision-making or price-setting process. Interestingly, two countries with the same set of regulations can impose different regulatory burdens. If one country applies its regulations evenly and transparently, it can lower the regulatory burden by facilitating long-term business planning. If the other applies regulations inconsistently, it raises the regulatory burden by creating an unpredictable business environment.
Labor Freedom
The ability of individuals to find employment opportunities and work is a key component of economic freedom. By the same token, the ability of businesses to contract freely for labor and dismiss redundant workers when they are no longer needed is essential to enhancing productivity and sustaining overall economic growth.
The core principle of any economically free market is voluntary exchange. That is just as true in the labor market as it is in the market for goods.
State intervention generates the same problems in the labor market that it produces in any other market. Government labor regulations take a variety of forms, including minimum wages or other wage controls, limits on hours worked or other workplace conditions, restrictions on hiring and firing, and other constraints. In many countries, unions play an important role in regulating labor freedom and, depending on the nature of their activity, may be either a force for greater freedom or an impediment to the efficient functioning of labor markets.
Onerous labor laws penalize businesses and workers alike. Rigid labor regulations prevent employers and employees from freely negotiating changes in terms and conditions of work, and the result is often a chronic mismatch of labor supply and demand.
Monetary Freedom
Monetary freedom requires a stable currency and market-determined prices. Whether acting as entrepreneurs or as consumers, economically free people need a steady and reliable currency as a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. Without monetary freedom, it is difficult to create long-term value or amass capital.
The value of a country’s currency can be influenced significantly by the monetary policy of its government. With a monetary policy that endeavors to fight inflation, maintain price stability, and preserve the nation’s wealth, people can rely on market prices for the foreseeable future. Investments, savings, and other longer-term plans can be made more confidently. An inflationary policy, by contrast, confiscates wealth like an invisible tax and distorts prices, misallocates resources, and raises the cost of doing business.
There is no single accepted theory of the right monetary policy for a free society. At one time, the gold standard enjoyed widespread support. What characterizes almost all monetary theories today, however, is support for low inflation and an independent central bank. There is also widespread recognition that price controls corrupt market efficiency and lead to shortages or surpluses.
Market Openness
Trade Freedom
Many governments place restrictions on their citizens’ ability to interact freely as buyers or sellers in the international marketplace. Trade restrictions can manifest themselves in the form of tariffs, export taxes, trade quotas, or outright trade bans. However, trade restrictions also appear in more subtle ways, particularly in the form of regulatory barriers related to health or safety.
The degree to which government hinders the free flow of foreign commerce has a direct bearing on the ability of individuals to pursue their economic goals and maximize their productivity and well-being. Tariffs, for example, directly increase the prices that local consumers pay for foreign imports, but they also distort production incentives for local producers, causing them to produce either a good in which they lack a comparative advantage or more of a protected good than is economically ideal. This impedes overall economic efficiency and growth.
In many cases, trade limitations also put advanced-technology products and services beyond the reach of local entrepreneurs, limiting their own productive development.
Investment Freedom
A free and open investment environment provides maximum entrepreneurial opportunities and incentives for expanded economic activity, greater productivity, and job creation. The benefits of such an environment flow not only to the individual companies that take the entrepreneurial risk in expectation of greater return, but also to society as a whole. An effective investment framework is characterized by transparency and equity, supporting all types of firms rather than just large or strategically important companies, and encourages rather than discourages innovation and competition.
Restrictions on the movement of capital, both domestic and international, undermine the efficient allocation of resources and reduce productivity, distorting economic decision-making. Restrictions on cross-border investment can limit both inflows and outflows of capital, thereby shrinking markets and reducing opportunities for growth.
In an environment in which individuals and companies are free to choose where and how to invest, capital can flow to its best uses: to the sectors and activities where it is most needed and the returns are greatest. State action to redirect the flow of capital and limit choice is an imposition on the freedom of both the investor and the person seeking capital. The more restrictions a country imposes on investment, the lower its level of entrepreneurial activity.
Financial Freedom
An accessible and efficiently functioning formal financial system ensures the availability of diversified savings, credit, payment, and investment services to individuals and businesses. By expanding financing opportunities and promoting entrepreneurship, an open banking environment encourages competition in order to provide the most efficient financial intermediation between households and firms as well as between investors and entrepreneurs.
Through a process driven by supply and demand, markets provide real-time information on prices and immediate discipline for those who have made bad decisions. This process depends on transparency in the market and the integrity of the information being made available. A prudent and effective regulatory system, through disclosure requirements and independent auditing, ensures both.
Increasingly, the central role played by banks is being complemented by other financial services that offer alternative means for raising capital or diversifying risk. As with the banking system, the useful role for government in regulating these institutions lies in ensuring transparency and integrity and promoting disclosure of assets, liabilities, and risks.
Banking and financial regulation by the state that goes beyond the assurance of transparency and honesty in financial markets can impede efficiency, increase the costs of financing entrepreneurial activity, and limit competition. If the government intervenes in the stock market, for instance, it contravenes the choices of millions of individuals by interfering with the pricing of capital—the most critical function of a market economy.