Hayek-Friedman in the Press: Is There an Association between Economic Freedom and Press Freedom?
35 Pages Posted: 26 Mar 2016
Date Written: March 25, 2016
Abstract
The Hayek-Friedman Hypothesis states that economic freedom is a prerequisite for stable democracy. I test a variant of the hypothesis focusing on press freedom, which is arguably an important component of any democratic polity. Combining the Freedom House index of press freedom and the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom yields a large annual panel dataset between 1993 and 2011. Estimates show that improvements of economic freedom are associated with subsequent improvements of press freedom. The overall association is mainly driven by changes in market openness.
Keywords: Democracy, Economic Freedom, Press Freedom, Human Rights
JEL Classification: D78, H11, L10, P50
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