You Get What You Vote For: Electoral Determinants of Economic Freedom

Abstract

While several cross-sectional studies (La Porta et. al. 2002, Norton 2002) examine institutional and cultural determinants of economic freedom, changes in economic freedom remain unexamined. I construct a measure of median voter preferences and find changes in voter preferences for economic freedom to be a significant determinant of changes in economic freedom in a panel of 25 OECD countries. The voter preference measure is robust to several alternative specifications, including the addition of institutional variables.Economic Freedom, Median Voter, Manifesto Data, Voter Preferences,