Economic Freedom of the World: 2007 Annual Report

The index published in Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries support economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. Forty-two data points are used to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas: (1) size of government; (2) legal structure and security of property rights; (3) access to sound money; (4) freedom to trade internationally; and (5) regulation of credit, labor and business. This year's index includes a number of new components based on the World Bank's Doing Business ratings. In the past year, more data has become available and, so, 11 new jurisdictions have been added to the 130 jurisdictions in last year's index. They are: Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho, Mauritania, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia.