(The Center Square) – Iowa ranks 22n/a economic freedom from other states and provinces in the United States, Mexico and Canada, according to the Fraser Institute”North America’s economic freedom in 2021” report.
At 17and edition of its report, the Canadian institute ranked each state and province on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the most favorable for economic freedom variables compared to the other jurisdictions in the report. The scores, based on 2019 data, measure government spending, taxes and labor market regulations.
In the whole-of-government index, researchers considered measures of global economic freedom at the federal level of legal systems and property rights, sound currency, and freedom to trade internationally. They take into account restrictions on the economic freedom of public investment, the top marginal tax rate on income and wages, as well as credit market and trade regulations.
In the ranking of all governments, Indiana had the highest score for economic freedom (9and), followed by
- North Dakota (12and),
- South Dakota (14and) and
- Kansas (20and).
Iowa beat Michigan and Nebraska, who were tied at 23rd. Wisconsin was 25and while Missouri (30and), Illinois (35and) and Ohio (43rd) hurt more. Minnesota was 48and in the nation.
New Hampshire, Florida and Idaho had the highest scores for economic freedom in the United States. Delaware came last.
The report showed that people who live in states and regions with higher levels of economic freedom tend to have higher incomes, echoing a study published in Contemporary Economic Policy that came to a similar conclusion. . The researchers also found that a 10% increase in economic freedom is linked to a 5% increase in real GSP per capita. This figure breaks down all measured North American states and provinces into quartiles of economic freedom to show the disparity in per capita income.
“The results of the 20th century experiments should now be clear: free economies produce the greatest prosperity in human history for their citizens,” the study says. “Even poverty in these economically free countries would have been considered a luxury in unfree economies.”
