Freedom counts: Cross-country empirical evidence

João Ferreira, Nobuyuki Hanaki, Fabrice Le Lec, Erik Schokkaert and Benoît Tarroux
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João Ferreira: University of Southampton
Nobuyuki Hanaki: Osaka University [Osaka], University of Limassol
Fabrice Le Lec: LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Benoît Tarroux: UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2, GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - EM - EMLyon Business School - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: We investigate whether people attach intrinsic value to freedom and which theoretical rules they implicitly employ to evaluate opportunity sets. To do this, we run a new survey-based study with 4,902 participants across 10 different countries. Participants face various comparisons of opportunity sets in a policy-relevant context in a "spectator" position. Our main result is that an overwhelming majority of spectators reveal that they attach intrinsic value to freedom. We also find that a large majority of participants use size-based rules to rank sets in terms of freedom, while there is considerable heterogeneity in the theoretical rules they implicitly employ to rank sets in terms of welfare. These results are strikingly robust across countries.

Keywords: Freedom of choice; Welfare; Intrinsic value; Opportunity set; Cross-cultural survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05050356v1
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Published in European Economic Review, 2025, 176, pp.105022. ⟨10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105022⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Freedom counts: Cross-country empirical evidence (2025)
Working Paper: FREEDOM COUNTS: CROSS-COUNTRY EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE (2023)
Working Paper: Freedom counts: Cross-country empirical evidence (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05050356

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105022

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