Research @ Bridwell
Through our work on the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World and Economic Freedom of North America reports, the Bridwell Institute aims to become a leading research center on the nature, causes, and consequences of economic freedom. Bridwell Institute faculty choose their own research topics and publication outlets. The Bridwell Institute does not accept funding for contracted research.
Economic Freedom of the World
Since 1996, the Fraser Institute has published the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index. It measures the degree to which people in a nation are free to pursue their own economic objectives without government taxes and regulations, as well as the extent to which government protects property rights and provides a sound monetary environment.
The Bridwell Institute's Director Robert Lawson (and Jerome M. Fullinwider Endowed Centennial Chair in Economic Freedom) is a co-author of the Economic Freedom of the World report, with James Gwartney of Florida State University and Joshua Hall of West Virginia University.
Over the years, this study has found that the nations that score higher on the index tend to be richer and grow faster, and their citizens face less poverty, live longer... On virtually every measure of the good life, more economic freedom corresponds with better results. Other research finds economic freedom corresponds with less warfare, greater human rights, more gender equity, less unemployment, improved democracy, more trust, and less corruption.
To download the report for free, please visit .
Economic Freedom of North America
Since 2002, the Fraser Institute has published the Economic Freedom of North America (EFNA) index. It measures the extent to which the policies of individual U.S. and Mexican states and Canadian provinces are supportive of economic freedom, the ability of individuals to act in the economic sphere free of undue restrictions.
Bridwell Institute Research Associate Professor, Dean Stansel, has been the primary author of that report since 2013, along with Fraser’s Fred McMahon and Jose Torra of Mexico’s Caminos de la Libertad think tank. Research Assistant Professor and Managing Director, Meg Tuszynski, also contributes to that effort.
Hundreds of papers have been published by independent researchers using the EFNA in their work. Like the even larger volume of research using the country-level Economic Freedom of the World report, the general consensus of that research is that areas with higher levels of economic freedom tend to have better outcomes on a wide variety of measures.
To download the report for free, please visit .
United States Metropolitan Area Economic Freedom Index
Stansel produced the first local-level economic freedom index in 2013, published in the Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, available . As with the country- and state-level economic freedom indexes, research using the metro index has generally found that areas with higher levels of economic freedom tend to have better economic outcomes.
In January 2019, Stansel produced an updated and expanded version with nine years of data over five decades for 382 MSA’s. The academic article is available . The Reason Foundation also published a version of it in their Policy Study series, available .
Stansel updated the index with that new data for an essay that appeared in the Bridwell Institute’s 2021-2022 Annual Report, available here. That essay was adapted for the occasional paper mentioned above.