Economic Freedom and Happiness in U.S. Metropolitan Areas
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
Economic freedom has been shown to be positively associated with economic growth and a multitude of other outcomes, including measures of individual subjective well-being. We provide the first local-level examination of that latter relationship by conducting a multi-faceted investigation into the relationship between economic freedom, measured at the U.S. metropolitan statistical area level, and subjective well-being measures in the Gallup daily polls and the General Social Survey. Like previous work looking at countries and states, our results show a generally positive association between economic freedom and subjective well-being. The association is robust to the inclusion of Bartik-style instruments to control for endogeneity. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Recommended Citation
Jackson, Jeremy; Amadiani, Mona; and Stansel, Dean, "Economic Freedom and Happiness in U.S. Metropolitan Areas" (2025). College of Business and Economics. 365.
https://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/college_business_economics/365