The Effect of Economic Freedom on Civil Liberties in the Short Run: Physical Integrity Rights (2000-2011)

Abstract

Many writers -- most famously F. A. Hayek and Milton Friedman -- have posited a relationship between, on one hand, economic freedom and, on the other, political freedom and/or civil liberties. Despite sustained interest, this relationship has been the subject of relatively little empirical study. I estimate the short-run effect of a measure of economic freedom (using the Economic Freedom of the World index) on measures of civil liberties (using the CIRI Human Rights Dataset). In contrast to most previous studies using Freedom House's Freedom in the World index, I treat civil liberties as distinct from political freedom and consider several fundamental liberties separately.

Keywords: economic freedom, civil liberties, human rights, Friedrich A. Hayek, Milton Friedman

JEL Classification: P00, B00