16 Jan 2008

The 2008 Index of Economic Freedom
The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal, Washington DC, US
Self-description: "This is the 14th edition of The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Index of Economic Freedom. [...]
The 2008 Index of Economic Freedom covers 162 countries across 10 specific factors of economic freedom, which are listed below. Chapter 4 explains these factors in detail. High scores approaching 100 represent higher levels of freedom. The higher the score on a factor, the lower the level of government interference in the economy.
The 10 Economic Freedoms: * Business Freedom, * Trade Freedom, * Fiscal Freedom, * Government Size, * Monetary Freedom, * Investment Freedom, * Financial Freedom, * Property Rights, * Freedom from Corruption, * Labor Freedom.
Taken together, these 10 freedoms offer an empirical depiction of a country's degree of economic freedom. A systematic analysis of the 10 freedoms has demonstrated again this year that economic freedom is the key to creating an environment that allows a virtuous cycle of entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustained economic growth and development to flourish. Economies with higher levels of economic freedom enjoy higher living standards."
Site contents: * Review the briefing: What's New?; * Read the Executive Summary; * Explore the Methodology [this web page is missing - ed.]; * Get the Data [download for free, Excel format - ed.]; * Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner on CNBC; * Chapter 1 - Economic Fluidity: A Crucial Dimension of Economic Freedom [by] Carl J. Schramm; * Chapter 2 - Narrowing the Economic Gap in the 21st Century [by] Stephen L. Parente; * Chapter 3 - Globalization Is Making the World a Better Place [by] Guy Sorman; * Chapter 5 - Economic Freedom in Five Regions: Europe, Asia and the Pacific [Hong Kong (2007 Economic Freedom Score: 89.3); Singapore (85.7); Australia (82.7); New Zealand (81.6); Japan (73.6); Taiwan (71.1); S.Korea (68.6); Malaysia (65.8); Thailand (65.6); Kazakhstan (60.4); Mongolia (60.1); Kyrgyzstan (59.9); Fiji (59.8); Sri (Lanka (59.3); Pakistan (58.2); Philippines (57.4); Tajikistan (56.9); Cambodia (56.5); India (55.6); Azerbaijan (55.4); Indonesia (55.1); China (54.0); Nepal (54.0); Uzbekistan (52.6); Vietnam (50.0); Laos (49.1); Bangladesh (47.8); Turkmenistan (42.5); Burma (40.1); N.Korea (3.0).] Americas, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa. * Ranking; * Explore; * Top 10; * Downloads; * FAQs; *About
URL http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/index.cfm
Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.heritage.org/research/features/index/index.cfm
Link reported by: T. Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek--at--coombs.anu.edu.au)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library/museum - NGO - other]: NGO/Business
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 3,000 [in fact, 2640]