česká verze
english version
Center for Economic Freedom
Goal of the Center for Economic Freedom is to inform about the impact of existing or prepared policies on the freedom of individuals. However, not only on their economic freedom, but also on their personal liberties, as those two are highly interconnected and inseparable.
One of the main areas the Center focuses on, is the field of public finance. The Center annually since 2000 calculates the Tax Freedom Day in the Czech Republic and uses it to draw attention of the public to the question of public sector size and its inefficiency. Another project focusing on this field is the web portal cenastatu.cz ("price of the state"), which has the aim of gathering detail information regarding the public revenue and expenditure. It is possible to get a complex view of the state budget and its development over time via this portal. The portal is designed primarily for the students and should serve as an interactive teaching material introducing to them the state of public finance. However, everyone with interest in fiscal questions would find there a lot of interesting information.
Moreover, the Center is engaged in analysis of an economic phenomenon called the rent seeking and closely studies how new policies affect its extent. For example the recently adopted flat tax was analyzed and criticized from the viewpoint of rent seeking. Within the context of rent seeking the Center also studies the incentives of political representatives and points to the many "government failures" as a counterbalance to the so called market failures. Last but not least, the Center associates are already several years involved in a public debate about smoking bans in the restaurants.
Head of the Center:
Jiří Schwarz jr. ( schwarzjr (at) libinst.cz )
Fellows:
Václav Rybáček
Matěj Šuster
Zuzana Petrová
