Effect of Political Stability and Economic Freedom on the Economic Growth in Selected Developed and Developing Countries

One of the most important macro-economic objectives of the countries is to create the necessary conditions for promoting economic growth. Among them, we can point to political stability and economic freedom. Political instability leads to wasting physical and human resources and social capital, which will be considered as an economic rollback. Also, the rate of economic growth is associated with economic freedom index in every country. Economic freedom can lead to investment encouragment, promotion of skills, transfer of technology and efficient use of the investments through creation of relations of the market economy, private sector development, foreign trade development, remove unnecessary governmental regulations and provide the field for the development of productive activities. So, this study surveys the effects of political stability and economic freedom on economic growth in selected countries during the period 1996-2012. For this purpose, the effect of political stability and economic freedom indicators on economic growth has been tested by using GMM method for dynamic panel data models. The results indicate positive effects and statistically significance of political stability and economic freedom on economic growth in both groups of countries.