How to Handle Economic Freedom: Reply to Lawson

IN HIS COMMENT ON THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM SURVEY ARTICLE we wrote with Susanna Lundstr m (De Haan et al. 2006), Lawson (2006) criticizes five elements of our article: 1.Our use of the term “zealots” 2.Our remarks on the role of government in the construction of the economic freedom index 3.Our discussion of the composition of the economic freedom index 4.Our criticism of empirical growth models that include both the level and the change in economic freedom 5.Our endorsement of a modeling approach wherein researchers run many specifications In this reply, we briefly deal with each of these issues.