Take a look at the Heritage/WSJ 2008 Economic Freedom rankings.

Bosnia and Herzegovina languishes in a dismal 121st place overall, below even Tajikistan.

If you compare Bosnia with all other ‘European’ countries its individual ratings under the key different indictaors measures are not too bad – until it comes to Property Rights and Freedom from Corruption, where its scores are horrible.

This suggests that the massive international investment in BH since the conflict ended in 1995 should have focused far more on improving the judicial system and empowering it to deal with corruption.

Yet, in a way, these two areas are the ones most closely expressive of local culture, and therefore not really easy for outside engagement to shift simply by passing smart new laws?

Croatia and Macedonia too are dragged down the rankings because of these two criteria – something in the former Yugoslavia water, obviously.

How seriously should these studies be taken?

Heritage’s claim:

Not only is a higher level of economic freedom clearly associated with a higher level of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), but GDP growth rates also increase as a country’s economic freedom score improves.

Hmm. China seems to be doing rather well these days, and it fares badly in the overall global rankings, below even Bosnia(!). And can it really be true that Property Rights in Poland are as well protected as those in Moldova?

So a lot of subjectivities here. But that said, given the size and intensity of the international engagement in Bosnia for well over a decade, Bosnia ought to have done far better than this.

Lessons learnt, anybody?