We investigate whether the impact of institutions depends not just on their current state but also on how they came to be. In particular, we hypothesize that while economic freedom that emerges spontaneously may be growth promoting, economic freedom that emerges as a result of costly lobbying efforts may be less fruitful. In an extreme case, costly lobbying efforts may even negate the growth-en...

hat have been the significant changes in China’s economic and political institutions? I will answer this question by discussing eight topics chosen from Milton and Rose Friedman’s book Free to Choose. The topics are economic freedom, the relation between economic and political freedom, the role of government, social welfare, education, consumer protection, macroeconomic policy, and trends in th...

Several cross-country studies have found that corruption is detrimental to economic growth, but the findings are not universally robust. We utilize the economic freedom index to examine if corruption can facilitate growth by allowing entrepreneurs to avoid inefficient policies and regulations when economic freedom is limited. Using regression analysis, we find that corruption is growth enhancin...

This study examines the effect of U.S. Presidents and Secretaries State visits to a country on institutional quality, particularly economic freedom. Hence, develops model that predicts conditions under which official can enhance quality institutions. We compile variables from 1960 2019 archives Department test predictions our model. In addition, we use endogenous treatment estimation deal with ...

This paper tests the widespread belief that right-wing governments tend to promote economic freedom while left-wing ones prefer more control over economy. Using annual data for 106 countries period 1975-2015 and a two-step system GMM estimator, this study shows are indeed prone deregulate It also finds effect seems be stronger in developing/emerging economies than developed countries. Moreover,...

I report estimates for a fixed-effects model of country-level Gini coefficients as a function of economic freedom along with relevant control variables. Gini coefficients are drawn from the UNU/WIDER World Income Inequality Database Version 2.0a, while economic freedom is measured by the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index. Controls are included for per capita income, politic...