Economics & Peace
According to the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World 2005 Annual Report (1.96MB .pdf file here — 255KB .pdf file of Executive Summary here), primarily written by James Gwartney and Robert Lawson, and Erik Gartzke:
Economic freedom is about 50 times more effective than democracy in diminishing violent conflict.
The impact of economic freedom on whether states fight or have a military dispute is highly significant (at the 1% level) while democracy is not a statistically significant predictor of conflict.
Nations with a low score for economic freedom (below 2 out of 10) are 14 times more prone to conflict than states with a high score (over eight).
The overall pattern of results does not shift when additional variables, such as membership in the EU, nuclear capability, and regional factors, are added.
“Is Economic Freedom the Key to Peace?,” Political Calculations