Economic freedom and economic well-being at the subnational level

See Economic Freedom of North America 2024 by Dean Stansel, José Torra, Matthew Mitchell,
& Ángel Carrión-Tavárez of the Fraser Institute. Excerpt:

"Economically free places tend to prosper. One way to see this is to compare economic freedom with income per person. Among those North American jurisdictions that were in the bottom 25% for all-government economic freedom (averaged from 2013 to 2022) income per person in 2022 was US$2,997. But among those jurisdictions that were in the top 25% on all-government economic freedom, income per person was US$62,184. In other words, incomes in the freest North American jurisdictions were 21 times higher than in the least-free jurisdictions. 

Incomes are not only higher in economically free places, but they tend to grow faster in these places as well. From 2013 to 2022 total income in the freest 25% of North American jurisdictions grew 29% after adjusting for inflation. In the least-free jurisdictions, however, inflation-adjusted income fell 13%. 

The same patterns hold when we compare jurisdictions within countries. In those places that were the most-free relative to the rest of their country, incomes were, on average, about 3% higher than in the rest of the country. But among those places that were the least-free relative to the rest of their country, incomes were 6.8% below the country average. 

Among the freest US states, population grew 10 times faster than it did in the least-free from 2013 to 2022. Total employment in these states also grew about three times faster than in the least-free states over this time. 

These general patterns have been corroborated by independent scholars using careful statistical analyses that control for possibly confounding factors such as geography, climate, and historical development. There are now nearly 400 articles by independent researchers examining subnational economic freedom using the data from Economic Freedom of North America."