Index of Economic Freedom
The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created in 1995 by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. The creators of the index assert that they take an approach inspired by Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, that "basic institutions that protect the liberty of individuals to pursue their own economic interests result in greater prosperity for the larger society".[1][2]
This article is about the index published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation. For other indices, see Indices of economic freedom.Methodology[edit]
The Index evaluates 177 countries in four broad policy areas that affect the economic freedom, which are rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency, and open markets.[18][19] It also takes into consideration some specific categories like property rights, judicial effectiveness, government integrity and tax burden.[20][21] The ranking scores aspects of economic freedom between 0 and 100, with 0 meaning "no economic freedom" and 100 meaning "total economic freedom". There are twelve aspects divided into four categories.[22]