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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Economic Freedom and its Measurement

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Interest in the measurement of economic freedom originates from two separate lines of inquiry. The first, firmly embedded in the tradition of normative economics, focuses on freedom measurement for enlarging the narrow evaluative bases of welfare economics. The second, rooted in the libertarian tradition, tries to construct objective empirical indices of the extent of economic freedom enjoyed by countries on a world-wide basis. Despite their different origins, methodology and aims, both traditions share a common denominator that informs their theoretical underpinnings and the measures that they construct, viz., individual choice. More precisely, economic freedom measures constructed within each line of inquiry reflect different relationships between ‘making choices’ and ‘having freedom’.