What America's Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity

There is ongoing interest both inside and outside the United States regarding the nation’s tepid and abnormally slow recovery from the pronounced contractions in 2008. A number of scholars have explained components of the slow recovery but almost no analysis exists that provides a larger understanding for the country’s dismal economic performance. The collected essays in What America’s Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity provide just such a framework, which allows readers to both understand the nature of the problem facing the United States and equally as important the path to recovery and prosperity.

View the PDF at FraserInstitute.org. 

Edited by Donald J. Boudreaux, the book is comprised of five essays by U.S. economists, that connect the dots between entrepreneurship, economic freedom, and economic growth, detailing their interrelated roles in America’s sluggish economic recovery.

Liya Palagashvili  begins by detailing how entrepreneurship is central for both economic growth and long-run prosperity.

Russell Sobel of The Citidel builds on Palagashvili’s chapter, providing further details on the relationship between entrepreneurship, high levels of economic freedom, and growth.”

Robert Lawson of Southern Methodist University examines the decline of economic freedom rankings in the United States since 2000.

Robert Meiners of the University of Texas at Arlington and Andrew P. Morriss examine the roles of the U.S. legal system and how special interests corrupt the legal and economic framework. They also explain how market competition is impacted by regulation.

Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr. of the Competitive Enterprise Institute captures the extent to which U.S. regulation has reached absurd levels.

In summary, the information and arguments presented here demonstrate unmistakably that the growth of government stymies entrepreneurship and threatens prosperity—a demonstration that, it is hoped, will help inspire efforts not just to slow, but to reverse, this growth and return to prosperity.