Working Papers

The Impact of Economic Freedom on Entrepreneurs’ Activities and Economic Growth: New Evidence From Cross-Country Data

No.

868

Date

November, 2014

Topic

M3. Marketing and Advertising

Q3. Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation

This paper’s purpose is to study the moderating effect of economic freedom on the relationship between entrepreneurial activities and economic growth. Accordingly, the paper’s objective is two-fold. First, it attempts to test the empirical validity of the interrelation between entrepreneurial activities and institutional settings to accelerate growth. Second, it assesses the impact of main economic tools that may affect entrepreneurial activities across countries. On the basis of the results, the mostly unfree countries suffer from economic stress that reflected in their inflation and taxes as well as in the many challenges that entrepreneurial activities face that hinder their moderating effect on the economic growth. The paper is valuable to policy makers in developing countries especially the mostly unfree countries in their pursuit of achieving economic growth and higher employment level. The paper shows the significant role of improvement in the entrepreneurial activities related with economic freedom in free countries and noteworthy lags in others. A cross-countries’ study clarifies the important role for entrepreneurial activities and the need to restructure policies within the mostly unfree countries to accelerate growth.