Give me liberty and give me control: Economic freedom, control perceptions and the paradox of choice

Boris Nikolaev and Daniel L. Bennett

European Journal of Political Economy, 2016, vol. 45, issue S, 39-52

Abstract: We explore the relationship between individual control perceptions and the degree to which a country's institutions and policies are consistent with the principles of economic freedom. Using data from the World Values Surveys (WVS) and the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, we find that people living in more economically free countries are more likely to perceive greater control over their lives. This effect is not diminishing at higher levels of economic freedom. One possible channel that explains this relationship is the perception of procedural fairness and social mobility. Decomposing the EFW index, we further find that the area of sound money is what drives the results.

Keywords: Control perceptions; Economic development; Economic freedom; Institutions; Procedural fairness; Social mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J6 O12 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:45:y:2016:i:s:p:39-52

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.12.002

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