Since the time of Adam Smith, the topic of cross-country differences in income levels and growth rates has generated both extensive and heated debate. Many economists have argued that free economies—those that rely primarily on market arrangements—will outperform those that rely more extensively on government intervention and political direction. Is this proposition really true? The Economic Fr...

Along with the economic and technological developments of the past decades, obesity has become a growing public health problem. This study empirically investigates whether the large and widespread increases in body-mass index (BMI) that have been observed around the world are related to economic freedom, as measured and defined by the Economic Freedom of the World Index. Economic freedom is par...

Diversity is often thought to create conflict and harm economic institutions. We hypothesize, however, that the impact of diversity is conditional on political institutions, and may be negative in some settings but positive in others, due to differences in the nature of rent seeking in different regimes. To test this hypothesis, we estimate the impact of diversity on economic freedom, condition...

Unemployment is costly to the individuals and families directly affected as well as to the economy and society as a whole. It is a waste of scarce resources, leading to a loss of income and potential output. For example, from his review of the relevant literature, Dawson (1992) concludes that, for the United Kingdom, an unemployment rate of almost 11% in 1983 entailed the loss of at least 11% t...

The eradication of world poverty is one of the most important issues facing economists, policy makers, and concerned citizens. There are several reasons why this is the case. First, as Theodore W. Schultz (1980) notes, most of the world is poor and this fact makes poverty reduction a central issue of economics. On varying intellectual terrains, scholars such as Lucas (1988), North (1981) and de...

Using the KOF Index of Globalization and two indices of economic freedom, we empirically analyze whether globalization and economic liberalization affect governments’ respect for human rights using a panel of 106 countries over the 1981-2004 period. According to our results, physical integrity rights significantly and robustly increase with globalization and economic freedom, while empowerment ...

This paper takes the initiative to study causality between military spending (MS), GDP of sector (GMS), armed forces personnel (AFP), arms exports (AE), and imports (AI) economic freedom (FE). Objectivity is determined in Indonesia�Malaysia�Singapore. Panel data regression using test a series hypotheses over period 2014�2021. Furthermore, probability parameter applied ? <0.05. Various conclu...