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The Hayek–Friedman hypothesis on the press: is there an association between economic freedom and press freedom?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2017

CHRISTIAN BJØRNSKOV
CHRISTIAN BJØRNSKOV*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Stockholm, Sweden
*
*Email: chbj@econ.au.dk
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Abstract

The Hayek–Friedman hypothesis states that economic freedom is causally associated with stable democracy. I test a particular element of the hypothesis focusing on press freedom, which is arguably a necessary component of any democratic polity. Combining the Freedom House index of press freedom and the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom yields a large annual panel dataset between 1993 and 2011. Estimates show that improvements in economic freedom are associated with subsequent improvements of press freedom. The overall association is mainly driven by changes in market openness.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , August 2018 , pp. 617 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2017 

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