Well-being and economic freedom: Evidence from the States

There is ample evidence that well-being, measured in various ways for a large number of countries, is positively related to the level of general intelligence. Pesta at al. (2010a) verify this close relationship between well-being and IQ across states. There also is evidence that wellbeing is positively related to economic freedom across countries. The purpose of this study is to determine whether economic freedom and well-being are related at the state level. Our regression analysis indicates that, across the 50 states, improvements in economic freedom lead to higher levels of well-being after controlling for other economic factors. We also find that the relationship between well-being and economic freedom differs significantly across regions in the United States. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.