There is no universally accepted concept or definition of economic freedom. • The most common approach emphasizes free markets and private property
• Another studies individual choice, with greater economic freedom coming from a larger set of possible choices.
• Another perspective puts economic freedom in the context of distributive justice and basic freedoms of all individuals.
In the most commonly used sense, economic freedom includes the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property – to work, produce, trade, consume and invest. In economically free countries, these rights are protected by the government and unconstrained by the government. Governments in economically free societies allow labor, capital and goods to move freely. The rule of law, property rights, freedom of contract, external and internal openness of markets, protection of property rights and freedom of economic initiative are all associated with economically free societies.
Since 1995 the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, in association with the Wall Street Journal, has published an influential annual ranking of countries based on their economic freedom. The basic principles of economic freedom emphasized in the index are individual empowerment, equitable treatment and the promotion of competition. It uses 10 indicators for each country.
The indicators, which are assigned a grade (0 indicating the least freedom and 100 the maximum) and averaged to give an overall score, are: • Business Freedom
• Trade Freedom
• Fiscal Freedom
• Government Spending
• Monetary Freedom
• Investment Freedom
• Financial Freedom
• Property Rights
• Freedom from Corruption
• Labor Freedom
For a complete listing of the sub-categories in each indicator, see http://www.heritage.org/index/FAQ.aspx, Q.3. The Heritage Foundation has written about its index that it "provides strong evidence that the countries that maintain the freest economies do the best job promoting prosperity for all citizens." Its proponents say that the data suggests that economic freedom correlates with promoting human development, reducing poverty and protecting the environment and that it correlates with higher living standards, literacy, life expectancy, economic growth, income equality and self-reported happiness, and with less corruption and less political violence. They point to the recent attempts by governments to increase spending and regulation in response to the recent crisis and point out that those countries have seen a decrease in their scores over the past year.
The field of economic freedom research, and the Index of Economic Freedom in particular, are not without their critics. The various critics: • point out that "correlation" is not "causation," and that there may be other reasons why the variables are related.
• take issue with the correlation itself, pointing out that in the recent recession one-half of the 10 hardest-hit economies in the world were listed among the 30 "free" and "mostly free" economies at the top of the ranking.
• suggest that the concept is too narrowly defined or take issue with some specific indicators that are included in various indexes of economic freedom.
• oppose the inclusion of some business-released measures as corporate charters and intellectual property protection.
• point to the recent strong growth of the Chinese economy as evidence of a lack of correlation between economic freedom and economic growth.
• argue that the studies, coming from a free-market viewpoint, and the choice and weightings of variables in the studies assume that what is good for investors or employers is, by definition, "good" in the absolute sense; they point out that the same factors that enhance "freedom" for an employer (e.g., to hire workers at low wages) may undermine economic freedom for employees (e.g., to work at a job without suffering poverty). | 
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