Through a combination of theoretical and empirical contributions, this book addresses the need for a better understanding of why some societies are more economically free than others and how changes in economic freedom come about.

Benjamin Powell is the director of the Free Market Institute and Professor of Economics at the Rawls College of Business Administration at Texas Tech University, USA. He has authored or edited five other books and more than 50 scholarly journal articles, his research findings have been reported widely in the popular press and he has been a regular commentator on national television.

Acknowledgments, About the Authors. 1. Introduction, Benjamin Powell. Part 1: Theory. 2. Taming Leviathan, Peter J. Boettke and Liya Palagashvili. 3. Constitutional Drift and Political Dysfunction: Underappreciated Maladies of the Political Commons, Alexander William Salter. 4. The Limits of Liberalism: Good Boundaries Must Be Discovered, Adam Martin. Part 2: Empirical Explorations and Case Studies. 5. The Rise and Decline of Nations: The Dynamic Properties of Institutional Reform, Russell S. Sobel. 6. Persistence of Historical Influences on Current Economic Freedom, Stephan F. Gohmann. 7. Institutional Convergence: Exit or Voice?, Joshua C. Hall. 8. Crises and Government: Some Empirical Evidence, Jamie Bologna and Andrew T. Young. 9. Does Immigration Impact Institutions?, J. R. Clark, Robert Lawson, Alex Nowrasteh, Benjamin Powell and Ryan Murphy. 10. The Genesis and Evolution of China's Economic Liberalization, James A. Dorn. Part 3: Keynote Addresses. 11. Freedom versus Coercion in Economic Development, William Easterly. 12. The Case for Free Trade since David Ricardo, Douglas A. Irwin. 13. Manifesto for a New American Liberalism, or How to be a Humane Libertarian, Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. Index