Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

2014

College/Unit

Chambers College of Business and Economics

Document Number

14-23

Department/Program/Center

Economics

Abstract

The Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index is extensively used in academic research to show how economic freedom relates to a wide array of economic and social outcomes. Given this, it is important that researchers understand the goal of the index and how to properly utilize this index in their research. There seem to be several common misconceptions about the EFW index resulting from a simple misunderstanding of the index itself. This paper discusses each of these misconceptions in turn and makes suggestions for future research. This paper aims to significantly improve the quality of research using the EFW index, and possibly the EFW index itself through the development of new datasets and weighting schemes.

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