10 Reasons to Love the Free Market
7. The free market makes people happier
A number of studies find that economic freedom makes people happier, for example, results from a study based on data from 86 countries over the 1990–2005 period suggest that overall economic freedom has a significant positive effect on subjective well-being. Generally speaking, the freer a country is economically, the more positive its citizens’ mood is. Economic freedom, therefore, not only makes people richer, but it also makes them happier.
Developing countries profit more from higher economic freedom, in particular from reducing the regulatory burden. Culture moderates the effect. Generally, societies that are more tolerant and have a positive attitude toward the market economy profit the most.
