The Cato Institute has recently published the latest edition of the excellent Freedom in the Fifty States, its ranking of state and local policies on economic and personal freedom, authored by political scientists William Ruger and Jason Sorens. Variations in state policy on these issues have major impacts on human freedom and welfare, and also on interstate migration patterns. These rankings are of obvious interest to libertarians; but they are also useful to social scientists and policy analysts with a wide range of views. The book includes a wealth of data on a variety of state policies affecting freedom, as well as overall rankings of state policy, rankings of economic and personal freedom considered separately, and rankings based on a range of subcategories.
