THE IMPACT OF HUMAN FREEDOMS ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

Abstract

The impact of formal institutions, including rule of law, human rights, and civil liberties on economic growth has been in the focus of the latest research agenda of the new institutional economics due to the current pandemic of the Corona-19 virus. Some limitations are necessary to be imposed to address a pandemic, but this is a real risk of lasting deterioration in basic human freedoms. Increased surveillance, restrictions on free expression and information, and limits on public participation are becoming increasingly common. The present fear is that the authorities worldwide are using the current situation to repress human rights for political purposes. This paper aims to explore the effect of the overall institutional environment, understood as the concept of human freedom, on economic prosperity in different jurisdictions around the world. Human freedom is a general term for personal, civil, and economic freedom and therefore the interconnection with economic growth can be seen in both directions. In our analysis, we use the Human Freedom Index published by the Fraser Institute as a proxy for human freedom. Here, human freedom is understood as the absence of coercive constraint. The index is calculated based on 79 distinct indicators representing different aspects of personal and economic freedom. This analysis seeks to answer several questions. First, we are interested in examining whether there is empirical evidence about the causality between human freedoms and economic growth. Second, we are interested in whether human freedom has a positive impact on growth rates. And third, we are interested in examining the influence of other determinants on economic growth. To test the causality between human freedom and economic growth, we have conducted a Granger causality analysis. The empirical strategy for identification of the possible influence of human freedom to growth rates includes the development of ordinary least squares (OLS) panel regression models for selected economies of the world, or around 174 cross-section units (countries) in the period between 2008 and 2017.