Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom

An Index of Freedom in the World
Ian Vásquez and Tanja Štumberger*
chapter three
Using available data, we have created an index that we believe is a reasonable,
early attempt at measuring freedom around the world. As a result
of the Fraser Institute’s decades-long work to define and measure economic
freedom, a tremendous amount of progress has been made in
understanding the concept of economic freedom and its contribution to
human well-being.1 Building on that work, this paper attempts to devise
a broader measure of human liberty that also includes indicators of civil
and other liberties.
No such index currently exists, at least not one that is comprehensive
and consistent with a classical liberal perspective. The purpose for
engaging in this exercise is to more carefully explore what we mean by
freedom, and to better understand its relationship to any number of social
and economic phenomena. Just as important, this research could improve
our appreciation of the way in which various freedoms—economic, civil,
and political—relate to one another. To the extent possible, we will be
able to observe those relationships through time, even if at first the time
frame is limited.
We are under no illusion that this is an ideal index of what it purports
to measure (league tables rarely are), but it helps us get closer to our goal.
Our hope is that the current paper will stimulate a more focused discussion
about the suitability of the data and about a sensible approach to
their use. The paper is organized as follows: a description of the concept
measured and methodology; a justification and description of the data
used; results and preliminary findings.
* Ian Vásquez is director of the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato
Institute. Tanja Štumberger is a senior fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
1 The culmination of that work is the annual Economic Freedom of the World report published
by the Fraser Institute and co-authored by James Gwartney and Robert Lawson (and now
also by Joshua Hall); the report has spawned an extensive research literature. For a more
comprehensive view on the economic freedom research, see .
www.freetheworld.com • www.fraserinstitute.org • Fraser Institute ©2012