The Evolution of US State Economic Freedom during the Pandemic's Second Year

This article updates a measure of lockdown regulatory freedom for 2021 and adjusts the economic freedom scores of US states-as measured in the Economic Freedom of North America index-to account for how lockdown regulations affected economic freedom. We also use the measure to assess how overall economic freedom evolved from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic through 2021. When scores are not adjusted for lockdown regulations, average economic freedom across the fifty states appears essentially unchanged from 2019 through 2021. In contrast, our lockdown-adjusted freedom scores reveal that average economic freedom plunged in 2020 and while freedom increased in 2021, the increase was insufficient to offset the substantial decline experienced in 2020.