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to the conclusion that differences in economic freedom<br />

cause an approximate 2% fluctuation in economic growth<br />

annually. The author of this study has also reached the<br />

same conclusion (Sepp 2006).<br />

The Heritage Foundation rankings are led by Hong<br />

Kong and Singapore; in Europe, by Great Britain and Ireland.<br />

Estonia’s position in the HF ranking is also good; in<br />

2005, even culminating with 4th place in the world. In<br />

2007, Estonia was 12th, and 16th in 2012, between Finland<br />

and the Netherlands; Estonia places seventh, when<br />

the ranking is limited to Europe. Starting in 2007, the<br />

impact of the economic crisis has caused a negative trend<br />

in the composite index of Estonia’s economic freedom,<br />

which on a scale of 1 to 100 fell from 78 to 73 points.<br />

The main reason is the decline in the assessment given to<br />

government spending, which fell to 38.8 points. This was<br />

lower only in 2000. Another problem is labour market<br />

freedom and freedom from corruption. The remaining<br />

components steadily score over 70 points, and therefore<br />

are not directly affected by the economic situation<br />

(see Figure 4.1.3).<br />

A more detailed ranking of business freedom is<br />

provided by the World Bank (see Annex). The ranking<br />

is led again by Singapore and Hong Kong, and Denmark<br />

and Norway in Europe. In the ranking of the world’s<br />

states during the last year, Estonia has dropped two<br />

places, being 21st in the world in 2013, and 14th among<br />

OECD states between Germany and Japan.<br />

Figure 4.1.4 shows that Estonia’s weaknesses and<br />

strengths are quite graphic. If goods markets are very<br />

open, and the registration of property is simple, greater<br />

problems are related to bankruptcy proceedings and<br />

investor protection. It is noteworthy that the World Bank<br />

is no longer assessing business freedom in the context<br />

of the labour market. Earlier research gave Estonia a<br />

damning assessment in this regard. Therefore, the situation<br />

in the labour market is dealt with separately, in<br />

sub-chapter 4.3.<br />

4.1.3<br />

Quality of governance<br />

Another possibility for assessing the quality of institutions<br />

is related to the concept of governance. The empirical<br />

basis for this is provided by the World Bank’s Worldwide<br />

Governance Indicators (WGI). Essentially, Kaufmann, et<br />

al. (2010) defines governance as traditions and institutions<br />

by which the authority in a state is exercised. Thereafter,<br />

it is divided into three dimensions, each of which is<br />

characterised by two indicators.<br />

Unlike the concept of business freedom, the political<br />

institutions are also considered. The first two indicators<br />

are related to the rules for electing a government, controlling<br />

it and dispersing it. The first indicator, called<br />

Voice and Accountability, measures the participation of<br />

the citizenry in democratic processes, and the freedom of<br />

opinion and assembly. The second dimension characterises<br />

political freedom, and the extent of terror and political<br />

violence in each state, and examines the ability of the<br />

government to formulate and execute economic policy.<br />

The first indicator of this dimension measures the general<br />

effectiveness of the government, including assessments of<br />

the quality of officialdom, and of political independence.<br />

The second indicator characterises regulatory quality,<br />

based on the impact of regulations on economic development,<br />

primarily by supporting the private sector.<br />

The third dimension of the quality of governance<br />

presumes that the citizenry and the state respect the<br />

economic and political institutions. In this connection,<br />

the rule of law is first evaluated, which is related to the<br />

protection of property rights and the enforcement of contracts.<br />

At the same time, corruption is also measured as a<br />

means of abusing public office for private economic gain.<br />

Thereby a total of six indicators are assembled,<br />

behind each of which there are numerous sub-indicators,<br />

a total of 31. 10 The sources include surveys of individuals<br />

and companies, expert opinions from officials (e.g.<br />

the World Bank, African Development Bank, U.S. State<br />

Department, etc.), information from nongovernmental<br />

organisations (e.g. Reporters Without Borders) and economic<br />

information from commercial sources (e.g. Economist<br />

Intelligence Unit). In this report, when assessing the<br />

Figure 4.1.5<br />

The development reserve of the reference states as<br />

the difference between the rankings for income and the<br />

average of the economic environment indicators.<br />

Slovenia<br />

Israel<br />

Singapore<br />

Hungary<br />

Austria<br />

Slovakia<br />

Netherlands<br />

Czech Republic<br />

Uruguay<br />

Switzerland<br />

South Korea<br />

Costa Rica<br />

Canada<br />

Denmark<br />

Ireland<br />

Finland<br />

Estonia<br />

Chile<br />

New Zealand<br />

-20 -10 0 10 20<br />

-20 -10 0 10 20<br />

10 Here we also conducted our own factor and regression analysis. By using the data on the reference states, two latent factors appeared, whereas<br />

the first of these is related, primarily, to economic traits, and the other, to political traits. The previously mentioned regularity was confirmed,<br />

namely, that political factors by themselves do not correlate with economic development. On the other hand, the quality of economic institutions<br />

(first factor) was closely connected to the achieved level of earning, and statistically significant.<br />

154<br />

Estonian Human Development Report 2012/2013

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