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Economic

Freedom

of theWorld

Annual Report

James Gwartney,

Robert Lawson,

& Joshua Hall

with Scott L. Baier, Christian Bjørnskov,

Matthew Clance, Alice M. Crisp, Axel Dreher,

Gerald P. Dwyer, Nicolai J. Foss, and Kai Gehring

Most Free

2nd Quartile

3rd Quartile

Least Free

2012

Economic Freedom

of the World

2012 Annual Report

James Gwartney Robert Lawson Joshua Hall

Florida State University Southern Methodist University Beloit College

with

Scott L. Baier Christian Bjørnskov Matthew Clance Alice M. Crisp

Clemson University Aarhus University Clemson University Florida State University

Axel Dreher Gerald P. Dwyer Nicolai J. Foss Kai Gehring

Heidelberg University University of Carlos III Copenhagen Business School University of Göttingen

& Norwegian School of Economics

& Business Administration

2012

Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com

Copyright ©2012 by the Fraser Institute. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in

any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in

critical articles and reviews.

The authors of this book have worked independently and opinions expressed by them are, therefore, their

own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the supporters, trustees, or staff of the Fraser Institute.

This publication in no way implies that the Fraser Institute, its trustees, or staff are in favor of, or oppose

the passage of, any bill; or that they support or oppose any particular political party or candidate.

Published in cooperation with the Economic Freedom Network

Editing, design, and typesetting by Lindsey Thomas Martin

Cover design by Bill Ray

Printed and bound in Canada

Data available to researchers

The full data set, including all of the data published in this report as well as data omitted due to limited

space, can be downloaded for free at <http://www.freetheworld.com>. The data file available there con￾tains the most up-to-date and accurate data for the Economic Freedom of the World index. Some vari￾able names and data sources have evolved over the years since the first publication in 1996; users should

consult earlier editions of Economic Freedom of the World for details regarding sources and descriptions

for those years. All editions of the report are available in PDF and can be downloaded for free from

<http://www.freetheworld.com/datasets_efw.html>. However, users are always strongly encouraged

to use the data from this most recent data file as updates and corrections, even to earlier years’ data, do

occur. Users doing long-term or longitudinal studies are encouraged to use the chain-linked index as

it is the most consistent through time. If you have difficulty downloading the data, please contact Fred

McMahon via e-mail to <[email protected]>. If you have technical questions about the

data itself, please contact Robert Lawson via e-mail to <[email protected]>. Please cite the

data set as:

Authors: James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Joshua Hall

Title: 2012 Economic Freedom Dataset, published in Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report

Publisher: Fraser Institute

Year: 2012

URL: <http://www.freetheworld.com/datasets_efw.html>

Cite this publication

Authors: James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Joshua Hall

Title: Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report

Publisher: Fraser Institute

Date of publication: 2012

Digital copy available from <www.fraserinstitute.org> and <www.freetheworld.com>

Publishing history

See page 309 for a list of all volumes of Economic Freedom of the World and associated publications.

Cataloguing Information

Gwartney, James D.

Economic freedom of the world … annual report / James D. Gwartney.

Annual.

Description based on: 1997

2012 issue by James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Joshua Hall, with Scott L. Baier, Christian Bjørnskov,

Matthew Clance, Alice M. Crisp, Axel Dreher, Gerald P. Dwyer, Nicolai J. Foss, and Kai Gehring.

Issued also online.

ISSN 1482-471X; ISBN 978-0-88975-258-0 (2012 edition).

1. Economic history--1990- --Periodicals. 2. Economic indicators--Periodicals.

I. Fraser Institute (Vancouver, B.C.) II. Title

www.freetheworld.com • www.fraserinstitute.org • Fraser Institute ©2012

Table of Contents

Executive Summary / v

Chapter 1 Economic Freedom of the World in 2010 / 1

Chapter 2 Country Data Tables / 27

Chapter 3 Institutions and Economic, Political, and Civil Liberty in Latin America / 173

by Alice M. Crisp and James Gwartney

Chapter 4 Banking Crises and Economic Freedom / 201

by Scott L. Baier, Matthew Clance, and Gerald P. Dwyer

Chapter 5 Does Aid Buy (Economic) Freedom? / 219

by Axel Dreher and Kai Gehring

Chapter 6 How Institutions of Liberty Promote Entrepreneurship and Growth / 247

by Christian Bjørnskov and Nicolai J. Foss

Appendix Explanatory Notes and Data Sources / 271

About the Authors / 285

About the Contributors / 286

Acknowledgments / 288

The Economic Freedom Network / 289

Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com

Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report • v

www.freetheworld.com  •  www.fraserinstitute.org  •  Fraser Institute ©2012

Executive Summary

Economic Freedom of the World

The index published in Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which

the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The

cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, free￾dom to compete, and security of privately owned property. Forty-two variables are

used to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom

in five broad areas:

1 Size of Government;

2 Legal System and Property Rights;

3 Sound Money;

4 Freedom to Trade Internationally;

5 Regulation.

An important anniversary

This year is the 100th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth. Milton Friedman was

the godfather of Economic Freedom of the World. He believed that, if economic free￾dom could be measured with greater accuracy, it would be possible to isolate its

impact on the performance of economies and other factors of interest. This led to

the Economic Freedom of the World project, headed by Milton and Rose Friedman

and Michael Walker, then executive director of the Fraser Institute.

Since our first publication in 1996, numerous studies have used data from

Economic Freedom of the World to examine the impact of economic freedom on

investment, economic growth, income levels, and poverty rates. Virtually without

exception, these studies have found that countries with institutions and policies

more consistent with economic freedom have higher investment rates, more rapid

economic growth, higher income levels, and more rapid reductions in poverty rates.

Economic freedom from around the world

• In the chain-linked index, average economic freedom rose from 5.30 (out of 10) in

1980 to 6.88 in 2007. It then fell for two consecutive years, resulting in a score of

6.79 in 2009 but has risen slightly to 6.83 in 2010, the most recent year available.

It appears that responses to the economic crisis have reduced economic freedom

in the short term and perhaps prosperity over the long term, but the upward

movement this year is encouraging.

vi • Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report

Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com

• In this year’s index, Hong Kong retains the highest rating for economic freedom,

8.90 out of 10. The other top 10 nations are: Singapore, 8.69; New Zealand, 8.36;

Switzerland, 8.24; Australia, 7.97; Canada, 7.97; Bahrain, 7.94; Mauritius, 7.90;

Finland, 7.88; and Chile, 7.84.

• The rankings (and scores) of other large economies in this year’s index are the United

Kingdom, 12th (7.75); the United States, 18th (7.69); Japan, 20th (7.64); Germany,

31st (7.52); France, 47th (7.32); Italy, 83rd (6.77); Mexico, 91st, (6.66); Russia, 95th

(6.56); Brazil, 105th (6.37); China, 107th (6.35); and India, 111th (6.26).

• The scores of the bottom ten nations in this year’s index are: Venezuela, 4.07;

Myanmar, 4.29; Zimbabwe, 4.35; Republic of the Congo, 4.86; Angola, 5.12;

Democratic Republic of the Congo, 5.18; Guinea-Bissau, 5.23; Algeria, 5.34; Chad,

5.41; and, tied for 10th worst, Mozambique and Burundi, 5.45.

• The United States, long considered the standard bearer for economic freedom

among large industrial nations, has experienced a substantial decline in economic

freedom during the past decade. From 1980 to 2000, the United States was generally

rated the third freest economy in the world, ranking behind only Hong Kong and

Singapore. After increasing steadily during the period from 1980 to 2000, the chain￾linked EFW rating of the United States fell from 8.65 in 2000 to 8.21 in 2005 and

7.70 in 2010. The chain-linked ranking of the United States has fallen precipitously

from second in 2000 to eighth in 2005 and 19th in 2010 (unadjusted ranking of 18th).

Nations that are economically free out-perform

non-free nations in indicators of well-being

• Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of

$37,691 in 2010, compared to $5,188 for bottom quartile nations in 2010 current

international dollars (Exhibit 1.7).

• In the top quartile, the average income of the poorest 10% was $11,382, com￾pared to $1,209 in the bottom in 2010 current international dollars (Exhibit 1.10).

Interestingly, the average income of the poorest 10% in the most economically free

nations is more than twice the overall average income in the least free nations.

• Life expectancy is 79.5 years in the top quartile compared to 61.6 years in the

bottom quartile (Exhibit 1.11).

• Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than

in unfree nations (Exhibit 1.12).

Chapter 1: Economic Freedom of the World in 2010

The authors of the report, James Gwartney (Florida State University), Robert

Lawson (Southern Methodist University), and Joshua Hall (Beloit College) pro￾vide an overview of the report and discuss why economic freedom is important.

They also consider the key factors underlying the decline in economic freedom of

the United States since 2000.

Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report • vii

www.freetheworld.com  •  www.fraserinstitute.org  •  Fraser Institute ©2012

Chapter 2: Country Data Tables

Detailed historical information is provided for each of the 144 countries and ter￾ritories in the index.

Chapter 3: Institutions and Economic, Political,

and Civil Liberty in Latin America

In this chapter, Alice M. Crisp and James Gwartney take a closer look at the eco￾nomic, political, and civil institutions of 22 Latin American countries. These insti￾tutions are interrelated and they work as a combination to influence economic

performance. To a large degree, researchers know the bundle of economic insti￾tutions and policies that lead to economic growth and prosperity. But economic

institutions are an outgrowth of the political process. Similarly, civil liberties influ￾ence the public discourse and thereby have an impact on both economic and politi￾cal decision-making. The quality of economic and political institutions is generally

related. In Latin America, five countries—Chile, Peru, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago,

and Uruguay—rank in the top eight in both economic and political institutional

quality. Similarly, six countries—Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti, Bolivia, Guyana, and

Honduras—rank in the bottom eight in both the economic and political catego￾ries. The chapter provides detailed information on the strengths and weaknesses

and changes in the institutional quality of Latin American countries during the

past two decades.

Chapter 4: Banking Crises and Economic Freedom

Scott L. Baier, Matthew Clance, and Gerald P. Dwyer examine the connection

between banking crises and measures of economic freedom from Economic

Freedom of the World: 2011 Annual Report. They find that higher economic free￾dom—more personal choice, freedom of exchange, and protection of private

property—is associated with a lower probability of a banking crisis. This is con￾trary to conventional wisdom that financial “deregulation” contributes to financial

and banking crises. This finding appears in estimates from both a linear prob￾ability and a probit model and is also unaffected by inclusion of the growth of

real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), deposit insurance, time or country dummy

variables, or the level of real GDP. The authors also find that economic freedom

falls after a financial crisis.

Chapter 5: Does Aid Buy (Economic) Freedom?

In this chapter, Axel Dreher and Kai Gehring survey the literature investigating the

effects of development aid on economic freedom. The authors discuss the theoreti￾cal channels by which development aid can affect freedom and review the existing

empirical literature. Overall, this literature does not establish a final answer to the

question of whether aid works. However, multilateral aid seems to be more effec￾tive in increasing freedom than bilateral aid, and aid disbursed in the period after

the Cold War seems to be more effective as well. This highlights the importance of

changes in the prevailing aid paradigm over time when analyzing the effectiveness

of aid. Moreover, the authors stress that a unified framework is required to con￾clusively investigate the effect of aid on freedom, including a common sample and

method of estimation, common control variables, and changing one parameter of

the empirical setup at a time rather than all of them together.

viii  •  Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report

Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com

Chapter 6: How Institutions of Liberty Promote

Entrepreneurship and Growth

Christian Bjørnskov and Nicolai J. Foss report on previous research on the links

between institutions of freedom, entrepreneurship, and economic growth and add

some new findings. Specifically, they discuss how economic policy and institutional

design affect entrepreneurship, and how entrepreneurship in turn affects total fac￾tor productivity. In a panel of 25 developed countries observed between 1980 and

2005, they find that government size and sound money positively affect entrepre￾neurial activity while legal quality does so negatively. Further evidence shows that

both entrepreneurship and legal quality exert a positive impact on productivity. The

main effects of improvements to economic freedom are mediated through entrepre￾neurship and are substantial.

Data available to researchers

The full data set, including all of the data published in this report as well as data omit￾ted due to limited space, can be downloaded for free at <http://www.freetheworld.com>.

The data file available there contains the most up-to-date and accurate data for the

Economic Freedom of the World index. Some variable names and data sources

have evolved over the years since the first publication in 1996; users should consult

earlier editions of Economic Freedom of the World for details regarding sources and

descriptions for those years. All editions of the report are available in PDF and can

be downloaded for free at <http://www.freetheworld.com>. However, users are always

strongly encouraged to use the data from this most recent data file as updates and

corrections, even to earlier years’ data, do occur. Users doing long-term or longitu￾dinal studies are encouraged to use the chain-linked index as it is the most consis￾tent through time.

If you have difficulty downloading the data, please contact Fred McMahon via

e-mail to <[email protected]>. If you have technical questions about the

data itself, please contact Robert Lawson via e-mail to <[email protected]>.

Please cite the data set as:

Authors James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, and Joshua Hall

Title 2012 Economic Freedom Dataset, published in Economic Freedom of the World:

2012 Annual Report

Publisher Fraser Institute

Year 2012

URL <http://www.freetheworld.com/datasets_efw.html>.

www.freetheworld.com • www.fraserinstitute.org • Fraser Institute ©2012

Chapter 1 Economic Freedom of the World in 2010

This year is the 100th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth. Milton Friedman was the

godfather of the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) project. He believed that, if

economic freedom could be measured with greater accuracy, this would make it possi￾ble for researchers to identify its impact on economic performance with greater clarity.

This has been the case. Since our first publication in 1996, numerous studies have used

data from Economic Freedom of the World to examine the impact of economic freedom

on investment, economic growth, income levels, and poverty rates. Virtually with￾out exception, these studies have found that countries with institutions and policies

more consistent with economic freedom have higher investment rates, more rapid

economic growth, higher income levels, and more rapid reduction in poverty rates.

Nonetheless, the battle over the merits of economic freedom continues to rage.

Several high-income economies are now experiencing high unemployment rates,

sluggish growth, and rising levels of government debt. In spite of the evidence to the

contrary, many believe that the financial crisis of 2008 was the result of lax regula￾tion and insufficient government oversight. Both central planning and Keynesian

economics have made a comeback. Budget deficits have soared recently to historic

highs, and popular Keynesian economists like Paul Krugman argue that the con￾tinued sluggishness merely reflects that the deficits have not been large enough

(Krugman, 2010, July 28). Democratic governments to a large degree centrally plan

key sectors of many western economies, including energy, health care, and educa￾tion. Against this background, both the measurement of economic freedom and the

ideas of Milton Friedman are perhaps more relevant than ever before.

What is economic freedom?

The key ingredients of economic freedom are:

• personal choice

• voluntary exchange coordinated by markets;

• freedom to enter and compete in markets; and

• protection of persons and their property from aggression by others.

These four cornerstones imply that economic freedom is present when individuals are

permitted to choose for themselves and engage in voluntary transactions as long as

they do not harm the person or property of others. While individuals have a right

to their own time, talents, and resources, they do not have a right to those of others.

Thus, individuals do not have a right to take things from others or demand that oth￾ers provide things for them. Use of violence, theft, fraud, and physical invasions are

2 • Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report

Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com

not permissible but, otherwise, individuals are free to choose, trade, and cooperate

with others, and compete as they see fit. In an economically free society, the primary

role of government is to protect individuals and their property from aggression by

others. The EFW index is designed to measure the extent to which the institutions

and policies of a nation are consistent with this protective function.

Why is measurement of economic freedom important?

Building on the work of Nobel laureates Friedrich Hayek and Douglass North, there

has been an explosion of research examining the impact of economic, political, and

legal institutions on the performance of economies during the past two decades.

Economists refer to this body of literature as the New Institutional Economics. This

research illustrates that institutions exert a major impact on cross-country differ￾ences in both per capita income and economic growth.1 Other factors, including

cultural characteristics, climate, and location may also be important, but institu￾tional attributes generally have more explanatory power. Debate continues on the

set of institutions most important for the growth process and the cause and effect

relationships among various economic and political arrangements. Research indi￾cates that economic institutions exert a stronger and more consistent impact on

economic growth than political democracy. However, the two may be complemen￾tary. Moves toward a more democratic political structure often occur either shortly

before or shortly after economic reforms. This has led to debate about how the

ordering of economic and political reforms influence performance and why reforms

occur in some countries, but not others.

The New Institutional Economics highlights the importance of the Economic

Freedom of the World project. The EFW data set provides the most comprehen￾sive measure of the degree to which countries rely on markets rather than political

decision-making to allocate resources. Obviously, a reliable measure of the degree to

which countries rely on market institutions is central to the ongoing scholarly efforts

to disentangle the importance of both economic and political institutions as determi￾nants of economic performance, as well as the potential importance of other factors.

How does democracy affect economic freedom?

A larger share of the world’s population now lives in democratic countries than at

any time in history. However, there is little popular understanding of the limita￾tions of democracy and why, if unconstrained, it is likely to result in outcomes that

most would consider undesirable. A majority vote rule is a highly useful method of

deciding who will carry out the protective functions of government. But, it is quite

another thing to use majority voting to decide how resources will be used in the

economy. As public choice analysis highlights, majoritarian democracy tends to be

shortsighted. It is biased toward the adoption of programs that provide immediate,

highly visible, benefits at the expense of future costs that are difficult to identify. This

shortsighted nature of democratic politics explains why unconstrained democracies

throughout the world are plagued by excessive debt and unfunded promises. Budget

deficits, debt financing, and promises that cannot be kept without higher future

taxes are not an aberration. They are reflective of the incentive structure accompa￾nying unconstrained democracy.

1 See Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012 for an important recent contribution that focuses on the role

of institutions in the growth and development process.

Economic Freedom of the World in 2010 • 3

www.freetheworld.com  •  www.fraserinstitute.org  •  Fraser Institute ©2012

Moreover, unconstrained democracy will enhance the power of well-organized

special interests relative to the ordinary citizen. Political incentives will lead poli￾ticians to “trade” favors to interest groups in exchange for political contributions

that will help them win the next election. When the government becomes heavily

involved in activities that provide favors to some at the expense of others, people

will be encouraged to divert resources away from productive activities and toward

lobbying, campaign contributions, and other forms of political favor seeking. All of

these shortcomings tend to corrupt the political process and lead even democratic

governments to adopt counterproductive policies.

However, research also indicates that shifts from authoritarian to democratic

political regimes often precede the adoption of reforms that promote economic

freedom. This raises an interesting possibility: perhaps democracy initially enhances

economic freedom, but with time, this positive impact reverses.2 As democracies

mature, interest groups become more powerful, transfers and subsidies more wide￾spread, and the share of the citizenry dependent on the government increases. This

suggests that more mature democracies will tend to be characterized by declin￾ing economic freedom, a dependent population, and economic stagnation. Clearly,

these issues are complex and accurate measurement of economic freedom is an

essential element of scholarly research on these vitally important topics.

The Economic Freedom of the World index for 2010

The construction of the index published in Economic Freedom of the World is based

on three important methodological principles. First, objective components are

always preferred to those that involve surveys or value judgments. Given the multi￾dimensional nature of economic freedom and the importance of legal and regulatory

elements, it is sometimes necessary to use data based on surveys, expert panels, and

generic case studies. To the fullest extent possible, however, the index uses objective

components. Second, the data used to construct the index ratings are from external

sources such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Economic

Forum that provide data for a large number of countries. Data provided directly from

a source within a country are rarely used, and only when the data are unavailable from

international sources. Importantly, the value judgments of the authors or others in

the Economic Freedom Network are never used to alter the raw data or the rating of

any country. Third, transparency is present throughout. The report provides informa￾tion about the data sources, the methodology used to transform raw data into compo￾nent ratings, and how the component ratings are used to construct both the area and

summary ratings. Complete methodological details can be found in the Appendix:

Explanatory Notes and Data Sources (page 271). The entire data set used in the

construction of the index is freely available to researchers at <www.freetheworld.com>.

Structure of the EFW index

Exhibit 1.1 indicates the structure of the EFW index. The index measures the degree

of economic freedom present in five major areas: [1] Size of Government; [2] Legal

System and Security of Property Rights; [3] Sound Money; [4] Freedom to Trade

Internationally; [5] Regulation.

2 This theory is highly consistent with the analysis of Olson, 1982.

4 • Economic Freedom of the World: 2012 Annual Report

Fraser Institute ©2012 • www.fraserinstitute.org • www.freetheworld.com

Within the five major areas, there are 24 components in this year’s index. Many

of those components are themselves made up of several sub-components. In total,

the index comprises 42 distinct variables. Each component and sub-component is

placed on a scale from 0 to 10 that reflects the distribution of the underlying data.

The sub-component ratings are averaged to determine each component. The com￾ponent ratings within each area are then averaged to derive ratings for each of the

five areas. In turn, the five area ratings are averaged to derive the summary rating for

each country. The following section provides an overview of the five major areas.

1 Size of Government

The four components of Area 1 indicate the extent to which countries rely on the

political process to allocate resources and goods and services. When government

spending increases relative to spending by individuals, households, and businesses,

government decision-making is substituted for personal choice and economic free￾dom is reduced. The first two components address this issue. Government con￾sumption as a share of total consumption (1A) and transfers and subsidies as a share

of GDP (1B) are indicators of the size of government. When government consump￾tion is a larger share of the total, political choice is substituted for personal choice.

Similarly, when governments tax some people in order to provide transfers to others,

they reduce the freedom of individuals to keep what they earn.

The third component (1C) in this area measures the extent to which countries

use private investment and firms rather than government investment and firms to

direct resources. Governments and state-owned enterprises play by rules that are

different from those to which private enterprises are subject. They are not depen￾dent on consumers for their revenue or on investors for capital. They often operate

in protected markets. Thus, economic freedom is reduced as government enter￾prises produce a larger share of total output.

The fourth component (1D) is based on (1Di) the top marginal income tax rate

and (1Dii) the top marginal income and payroll tax rate and the income threshold

at which these rates begin to apply. These two sub-components are averaged to cal￾culate the top marginal tax rate (1D). High marginal tax rates that apply at relatively

low income levels are also indicative of reliance upon government. Such rates deny

individuals the fruits of their labor. Thus, countries with high marginal tax rates and

low income thresholds are rated lower.

Taken together, the four components of Area 1 measure the degree to which

a country relies on personal choice and markets rather than government budgets

and political decision-making. Therefore, countries with low levels of government

spending as a share of the total, a smaller government enterprise sector, and lower

marginal tax rates earn the highest ratings in this area.

2 Legal System and Property Rights

Protection of persons and their rightfully acquired property is a central element

of economic freedom and a civil society. Indeed, it is the most important function

of government. Area 2 focuses on this issue. The key ingredients of a legal system

consistent with economic freedom are rule of law, security of property rights, an

independent judiciary, and an impartial court system. Components indicating how

well the protective function of government is performed were assembled from three

primary sources: the International Country Risk Guide, the Global Competitiveness

Report, and the World Bank’s Doing Business project.

Economic Freedom of the World in 2010 • 5

www.freetheworld.com  •  www.fraserinstitute.org  •  Fraser Institute ©2012

Exhibit 1.1: Areas, Components, and Sub-components of the EFW Index

1. Size of Government

A. Government consumption

B. Transfers and subsidies

C. Government enterprises and investment

D. Top marginal tax rate

(i) Top marginal income tax rate

(ii) Top marginal income and payroll tax rate

2. Legal System and Property Rights

A. Judicial independence

B. Impartial courts

C. Protection of property rights

D. Military interference in rule of law and politics

E. Integrity of the legal system

F. Legal enforcement of contracts

G. Regulatory restrictions on the sale of real property

H. Reliability of police

I. Business costs of crime

3. Sound Money

A. Money growth

B. Standard deviation of inflation

C. Inflation: most recent year

D. Freedom to own foreign currency bank accounts

4. Freedom to Trade Internationally

A. Tariffs

(i) Revenue from trade taxes (% of trade sector)

(ii) Mean tariff rate

(iii) Standard deviation of tariff rates

B. Regulatory trade barriers

(i) Non-tariff trade barriers

(ii) Compliance costs of importing and exporting

C. Black-market exchange rates

D. Controls of the movement of capital and people

(i) Foreign ownership/investment restrictions

(ii) Capital controls

(iii) Freedom of foreigners to visit

5. Regulation

A. Credit market regulations

(i) Ownership of banks

(ii) Private sector credit

(iii) Interest rate controls/negative real interest rates

B. Labor market regulations

(i) Hiring regulations and minimum wage

(ii) Hiring and firing regulations

(iii) Centralized collective bargaining

(iv) Hours regulations

(v) Mandated cost of worker dismissal

(vi) Conscription

C. Business regulations

(i) Administrative requirements

(ii) Bureaucracy costs

(iii) Starting a business

(iv) Extra payments/bribes/favoritism

(v) Licensing restrictions

(vi) Cost of tax compliance

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