Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

How to Handle Economic Freedom: Reply to Lawson

by and

Read this article

Access statistics
6,974 article downloads
10,384 complete issue downloads
Total: 17,358

Abstract

IN HIS COMMENT ON THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM SURVEY ARTICLE we wrote with Susanna Lundström (De Haan et al. 2006), Lawson (2006) criticizes five elements of our article: 1.Our use of the term “zealots.” 2.Our remarks on the role of government in the construction of the economic freedom index. 3.Our discussion of the composition of the economic freedom index. 4.Our criticism of empirical growth models that include both the level and the change in economic freedom. 5.Our endorsement of a modeling approach wherein researchers run many specifications

This article is a response to On Testing the Connection Between Economic Freedom and Growth by Robert A. Lawson (EJW, September 2006).

Response to this article by Julio H. Cole and Robert A. Lawson: Handling Economic Freedom in Growth Regressions: Suggestions for Clarification (EJW, January 2007).