Grad av näringsfrihet och fattigdom - En statistisk analys på 83 länder

Sammanfattning: This study uses multivariate regressions analysis to investigate the connection between business freedom and two, both monetary and non-monetary, measures of poverty in 83 countries. Business freedom is a policy that effectively means the absence of entry barriers for business to the formal economy. Entry barriers are the unnecessary costs of bureaucracy and formality that impedes the start of new businesses. The informal economy is unofficial work without employment or legal protection. The legalist theory states that entry barriers, or the absence of business freedom, creates a larger relative informal economy which in turn confines the poor into a perpetuating cycle of poverty. The study finds that there is a statistically significant connection between business freedom and both measures of poverty, even after the control variables democracy, property rights, corruption and government effectiveness are taken into account. Since the data used is cross-sectional, however, the analysis cannot statistically conclude which of the two variables causes which, only that there is a connection. Government effectiveness also shows statistical significance with both measures of poverty. Since government effectiveness, as well as business freedom, relates to the informal economy, the study concludes that absence of business freedom and government effectiveness both cause a larger relative informal economy, and that the informal economy therefore is the major cause of poverty of the variables discussed.