Give me liberty and give me control: Economic freedom, control perceptions and the paradox of choice

- People who live in countries with higher level of economic freedom experience greater perception of life control.
- This effect is not diminishing with the level of economic development.
- A possible channel through which this relationship work is the perception of procedural fairness and social mobility.
- Once we decompose the EFW index, we find that the area of sound money is what drives the results.
- The results are robust to panel estimations including fixed-effects and random-effects models.

We explore the relationship between individual control perceptions and the degree to which a country's institutions and policies are consistent with the principles of economic freedom. Using data from the World Values Surveys (WVS) and the Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, we find that people living in more economically free countries are more likely to perceive greater control over their lives. This effect is not diminishing at higher levels of economic freedom. One possible channel that explains this relationship is the perception of procedural fairness and social mobility. Decomposing the EFW index, we further find that the area of sound money is what drives the results.