Economic Freedom of the World is an annual survey published by the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank.

[4] The participants in the conferences reached a consensus that the cornerstones of economic freedom are: personal choice rather than collective choice, voluntary exchange coordinated by markets rather than allocation via the political process, freedom to enter and compete in markets, protection of persons and their property from aggression by others.

[5] The 2005 report states "When the functions of the minimal state—protection of people and their property from the actions of aggressors, enforcement of contracts, and provision of the limited set of public goods like roads, flood control projects, and money of stable value—are performed well, but the government does little else, a country's rating on the EFW summary index will be high.

"[5] In practice, the index measures: size of government (expenditures, taxes, and enterprises, legal structure), security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labor, and business.

After a threshold, when basic physical needs are met and a middle class is established, interest in a clean environment rises, reversing the trend.

[16] They examine the components of the index individually and find that many—including a low top marginal tax rate—are negatively, rather than positively correlated with economic growth.

A frequent criticism is that China, and other developing nations, have high growth rates but relatively low economic freedom.

Many northern European nations such as Iceland (#23), Denmark (#13), Finland (#21) and Sweden (#35), have extensive welfare states, which are strongly opposed by advocates of laissez-faire.

[17] The Global Competitiveness Report looks at several other factors that affect economic growth such as infrastructure, health, and education.

Although the World Bank does not believe that laissez-faire policies, if they allow large inequalities of wealth to develop, are an effective way to achieve this goal, it is a strong supporter of the importance of economic growth for reducing poverty.

[19] In 2014, a working paper published by the International Labour Organization said some of the methodology used in the Rigidity of Employment index sub-components, was not useful.