econ

> **Economic freedom, like freedom in general, is inherently fragile. National institutions and attitudes can shift the ground quickly.**
>
> In 1988, when Robert Lawson was a first-year economics graduate student at Florida State University, he was surprised one day to look up and see Dr. James D. Gwartney standing in front of him. He had come down from a different floor of the Bellamy Building to find Lawson. That was unusual, because grad students were normally summoned by tenured professors, not sought out by them.
>
> But in this case, Gwartney had an assignment that was considerably more interesting than grading papers or returning a library book. He had received a letter inviting him into a group attempting to construct an index to measure economic freedom. Gwartney’s first reaction was that it was a “harebrained” idea. How could you quantify such a thing? Then he checked the letter’s sender: Milton Friedman. 
>
> Gwartney decided this might be a rabbit hole worth going down. He offered Lawson the chance to go with him.
>
> ## The Economic Freedom of the World Index
> ## Chile
> ## Zimbabwe 
>
> ![](https://m.stacker.news/130040)
>
> [**...read more at thedailyeconomy.org**](https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/what-zimbabwe-can-learn-from-chile-a-tale-of-two-data-series/)