Informative ReadingEconomic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report

Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report. The Fraser Foundation. Online October 2005. Economic freedom is almost 50 times more effective than democracy in diminishing violent conflict between nations, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2005 Annual Report, released today by The Fraser Institute. In new research published in this year’s report, Erik Gartzke, a political scientist from Columbia University, compares the impact of economic freedom on peace to that of democracy on peace. “Researchers have long known democracies go to war about as often as other nations but tend not to go to war with each other. However, stable democracies typically have strong levels of economic freedom, leading to the question of whether it is democracy or economic freedom that affects the probability of violent conflict,” says co-author of the report, James Gwartney, Professor of Economics at Florida State University. ...