Economic Freedom: Lessons of Hong Kong

Abstract

For over a decade, the economy of Hong Kong has been ranked the freest economy by both the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. and the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada. Rankings of economic freedom tend to make comparisons on the performance of economic freedom among the various world economies, and the result does show the relative outcome of economic freedom among the various world economies. The rankings take a “snapshot” approach and show that economically freer countries enjoy a higher level of GDP and well-being. The message is to encourage countries to adopt more freedom-related policies and strategies.

But what is economic freedom in Hong Kong? How can one dissect a free economy? What are the needed ingredients and how Hong Kong can achieve the freest economy status? In other words, there is a need to look at the “absolute” picture of the freest economy. This book “Economic Freedom: Lessons of Hong Kong” attempts to provide the answer by looking at the situation in Hong Kong, examining the entirety of economic freedom, policies that instituted economic freedom, and the established institutions that maintained freedom. The single-author book contains a total of 16 chapters that can conveniently be grouped into four sections that covered the conceptual discussion of Hong Kong’s economic freedom, the contexture of economic freedom, the components of the freest economy and the conditions that sustained Hong Kong’s freedom.

Keywords: Economic freedom, capitalist development, Hong Kong

JEL Classification: N15, N25, N35, N65, O10, O53, P16