Economic Freedom and Recovery from the Great Recession
Class
Article
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
From 2007-2009 the United States suffered from the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression, a period which has been termed the "Great Recession." We examine whether economic freedom helped or hindered the ability of a state's economy to recover from this recession. To do this, we compared the level of economic freedom in each state to various measures of economic health, such as real GDP, housing prices, and private sector job creation, using monthly and quarterly time-series data from 2005 through 2013. Previous research shows that economic freedom is positively correlated with increases in wealth, education, health, and political freedom. Therefore, we expect to see states with higher economic freedom rankings recovering from the financial crisis more quickly than states with lower economic freedom rankings. To determine the level of economic freedom in each state, we use the Economic Freedom of North America rankings published annually by the Fraser Institute, which assigns its rankings based on the state's size of government, tax code, and labor market restrictions. We test our hypothesis by examining the degree to which these rankings correlated with the aforementioned indicators of economic health within each state.
Start Date
4-9-2015 1:30 PM
Economic Freedom and Recovery from the Great Recession
From 2007-2009 the United States suffered from the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression, a period which has been termed the "Great Recession." We examine whether economic freedom helped or hindered the ability of a state's economy to recover from this recession. To do this, we compared the level of economic freedom in each state to various measures of economic health, such as real GDP, housing prices, and private sector job creation, using monthly and quarterly time-series data from 2005 through 2013. Previous research shows that economic freedom is positively correlated with increases in wealth, education, health, and political freedom. Therefore, we expect to see states with higher economic freedom rankings recovering from the financial crisis more quickly than states with lower economic freedom rankings. To determine the level of economic freedom in each state, we use the Economic Freedom of North America rankings published annually by the Fraser Institute, which assigns its rankings based on the state's size of government, tax code, and labor market restrictions. We test our hypothesis by examining the degree to which these rankings correlated with the aforementioned indicators of economic health within each state.