style="text-align:justify;"> Even though metropolitan area governments have no control over state level monetary, labor, or fiscal policies, they are able to enact policies designed to enhance local living conditions—however determined. Such policies include local taxes, labor and wage policies, and regulations that can differ substantially from other metropolitan areas even within the same state. Collectively such policies create differing levels of economic freedom, as measured by standardized indices. We examine differences in levels of economic freedom across United States metropolitan areas and explore how these differences affect migration patterns and local aggregate and per capita income changes. We find that those metropolitan areas with higher levels of economic freedom tend to experience net in-migration and positive changes in aggregate and per capita income, although the balance between in-state and out-of-state migration confounds these patterns.
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