Fraser Institute Wins Prestigious International Award for Book Chronicling Link Between Economic Freedom and Entrepreneurship

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Oct. 21, 2015) - The Fraser Institute has been awarded the 2015 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award by the Atlas Network for its book, What America's Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity.

Established in 1990, the Fisher International Memorial Award recognizes the organization that published a book, magazine, report, monograph, or study that, in the opinion of a panel of external judges, has had demonstrable impact and made the greatest contribution to public understanding of the free society.

"To receive the Antony Fisher Award is an outstanding achievement for the Fraser Institute and shows the impact of our work not just at home in Canada but around the world," said Niels Veldhuis, Fraser Institute president.

The book, a joint endeavor between the Fraser Institute and the Mercatus Center in Virginia and edited by Donald J. Boudreaux, economics professor at George Mason University, examines the role entrepreneurs and small businesses play in growing an economy and how high levels of economic freedom increase both the quantity and quality of entrepreneurship. It also investigates the decline of economic freedom in the United States since 2000 and how this decline in economic freedom explains America's sluggish economic recovery.

What America's Decline in Economic Freedom Means for Entrepreneurship and Prosperity is comprised of five essays by noted economists Robert Lawson, Roger Meiners, Andrew P. Morriss, Russell Sobel, Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., and Liya Palagashvili. The book is available as a free PDF on the Institute's website.

"The contributors to the book are some of the finest economic minds and we are delighted that they have been recognized in this fashion. The Fraser Institute's Jason Clemens, deserves enormous accolades for developing the concept of the book and steering the project to completion," Veldhuis said.

Previous winners of the Fisher Award include the Institute of Economic Freedom (United Kingdom) for its book Foundations of a Free Society (2014), authored by Eamonn Butler with a forward by Ali Salman; the Ronald Coase Institute (United States) for its book How China Became Capitalist (2013), authored by the late Nobel laureate Ronald Coase and Ning Wang; and the Cato Institute (United States) for its book The Beautiful Tree (2009), authored by James Tooley.

The Fraser Institute is recognized by the University of Pennsylvania's annual Go-To Think Tank rankings as the top think tank in Canada and 19^th in the world among 6,600 think tanks.

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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org.