PublicationBook chapter

Economic freedom and environmental performance

Abstract

In this chapter, the relationship between economic freedom and environmental performance is scrutinized. The analysis relies on comparing countries’ standing in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) of the Yale Centre for Environmental Law & Policy with two indexes of economic freedom, one developed by the Fraser Institute (Economic Freedom of the World index), and the other by the Heritage Foundation (Index of Economic Freedom). Whether economic freedom is good or bad for the environment depends on how it affects incentives, productive efforts, and effective resource use. Greater economic freedom can both harm and help environmental performance. It is a complicated relationship, but high economic freedom generally goes hand in hand with high scores in the EPI.

Grafström, J. (2024). Economic freedom and environmental performance. In Handbook of Research on Economic Freedom (pp. 343-356).

Details

Author: Graftström, J.
Publication year: 2024
Published in: Handbook of Research on Economic Freedom. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

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Ph.D. and vice CEO
Jonas Grafström
+46703475854jonas.grafstrom@ratio.se

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