Publication: Freedom, Entitlement, and the Path to Development
Date
2011-06
ISSN
Published
2011-06
Author(s)
Abstract
Twenty years after the revolutions of
Central and Eastern Europe, the Arab Spring is again raising
some fundamental questions about the place of freedom and
entitlement in development. Depending on the balance between
free choices and more coerced decisions, individual
opportunities to learn, own, work, save, invest, trade,
protect, and so forth could vary greatly across countries
and over time. Reviewing the economic performance of more
than 100 countries over the past 30 years, new empirical
evidence tends to support the idea that economic freedom and
civil and political liberties are the root causes of why
certain countries achieve and sustain better economic
outcomes. In contrast, entitlement rights do not seem to
have any significant effects on long-term per capita income,
except for a possible negative effect. These results tend to
support earlier findings that, beyond core functions of
government responsibility (including the protection of
liberty itself), the expansion of the state to provide for
various entitlements (including so-called economic, social,
and cultural rights) may not make people richer in the long
run; it may even make them poorer.
Citation
“Chauffour, Jean-Pierre. 2011. Freedom, Entitlement, and the Path to Development. Economic Premise; No. 59. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/e4631af9-dd08-53e0-9835-e7b383b9d353 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”