Freedom counts: cross-country empirical evidence
Freedom counts: cross-country empirical evidence
We investigate whether people attach intrinsic value to freedom and which theoretical rules they implicitly employ to evaluate opportunity sets. To do this, we run a new survey-based study with 4902 participants across 10 different countries. Participants face various comparisons of opportunity sets in a policy-relevant context in a “spectator” position. Our main result is that an overwhelming majority of spectators reveal that they attach intrinsic value to freedom. We also find that a large majority of participants use size-based rules to rank sets in terms of freedom, while there is considerable heterogeneity in the theoretical rules they implicitly employ to rank sets in terms of welfare. These results are strikingly robust across countries.
Cross-cultural survey, Freedom of choice, Intrinsic value, Opportunity set, Welfare
Ferreira, João V.
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Hanaki, Nobuyuki
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Le Lec, Fabrice
29a02502-b249-4fb3-8dfd-351ec2016f51
Schokkaert, Erik
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Tarroux, Benoît
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29 April 2025
Ferreira, João V.
0aad606a-eab0-473c-a230-9b3dfa2d7d93
Hanaki, Nobuyuki
33ae7fa6-d05c-41a1-94f8-36a95a68cdd4
Le Lec, Fabrice
29a02502-b249-4fb3-8dfd-351ec2016f51
Schokkaert, Erik
63623adc-0d08-4ff0-8c19-643288b32f1d
Tarroux, Benoît
3f76c7cb-5292-456f-b29c-cfbe3a43e77c
Ferreira, João V., Hanaki, Nobuyuki, Le Lec, Fabrice, Schokkaert, Erik and Tarroux, Benoît
(2025)
Freedom counts: cross-country empirical evidence.
European Economic Review, 176, [105022].
(doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105022).
Abstract
We investigate whether people attach intrinsic value to freedom and which theoretical rules they implicitly employ to evaluate opportunity sets. To do this, we run a new survey-based study with 4902 participants across 10 different countries. Participants face various comparisons of opportunity sets in a policy-relevant context in a “spectator” position. Our main result is that an overwhelming majority of spectators reveal that they attach intrinsic value to freedom. We also find that a large majority of participants use size-based rules to rank sets in terms of freedom, while there is considerable heterogeneity in the theoretical rules they implicitly employ to rank sets in terms of welfare. These results are strikingly robust across countries.
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Ferreira et al - Freedom counts
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Accepted/In Press date: 21 March 2025
e-pub ahead of print date: 23 April 2025
Published date: 29 April 2025
Keywords:
Cross-cultural survey, Freedom of choice, Intrinsic value, Opportunity set, Welfare
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 502879
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/502879
ISSN: 0014-2921
PURE UUID: e36a0119-4507-4149-9d00-dcea6c260a23
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Date deposited: 10 Jul 2025 17:21
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:27
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Contributors
Author:
Nobuyuki Hanaki
Author:
Fabrice Le Lec
Author:
Erik Schokkaert
Author:
Benoît Tarroux
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