By Dr Kim Holmes
The Heritage Foundation founded the Index of Economic Freedom in 1995 as a way for countries to measure progress and compare themselves in what we believe is an essential ingredient of prosperity— namely, economic freedom. The Index is now in its 14th edition, and it is co-published with the Wall Street Journal.[1]
Over the years, it has been interesting to see how competitive some countries have become regarding their own scores in the Index. In fact, sometimes governments actually try to persuade us to give them a better score. We steadfastly refuse to be lobbied or unduly influenced, of course; yet some countries persist nonetheless. And in spite of this occasional overzealousness, having countries compete to be the freest economies in the world is in itself a very good thing!