Value Added in Different Economic Sectors, Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Freedom in Iran

Economic freedom plays a crucial role in assessing a nation's economic development. It grants individuals or communities the ability to make decisions according to their own desires or intentions. Economic literature from the 1990s onwards has primarily focused on the quality of institutions and economic freedom for the development of countries' economies. Consequently, empirical studies have placed greater emphasis on this subject. The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of value-added in agriculture, industry, services, and foreign direct investment on the economic freedom index from 1990 to 2021 using a Quantile Regression approach. The results of this study indicate that the value-added in agriculture, services, and industry has a positive and significant effect on the economic freedom index. Furthermore, the study suggests that while foreign direct investment has a positive impact, it is relatively weak on the economic freedom index.