WASHINGTON—Today, The Heritage Foundation released its 2022 Index of Economic Freedom. This year’s index reveals frightening trends as President Biden’s economy drags the United States to an all-time low ranking and economic freedom declines worldwide. In conjunction with the Index’s release, Heritage announced the recipient of the 2022 Steven M. Sass Economic Freedom Award, Marcin Nowacki. 

Nowacki has been a leading voice promoting market-oriented reforms and policy discussions in Poland and beyond. He is a member on the board of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute, a think tank advocating the removal of bureaucratic barriers, providing equal conditions for companies to start up and compete, fighting monopolies, and ensuring an efficient judiciary and law enforcement system.  

As vice president of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, he coordinates departments that are responsible for law and legislation, and oversees the organization’s representation at the European Union in Brussels. Nowacki also chairs the e-commerce working group of the SME Connect, Brussels-based SME platform, which is an integral part of the European Enterprise Alliance, an organization of entrepreneurs from Central and Eastern Europe that he helped found and currently leads as its president. 

The Heritage Foundation’s Steven M. Sass Economic Freedom Award was established in 2020 to recognize and encourage individuals and organizations that notably contribute to promoting free-market principles and policies. Daniel Doron, founder of the Israeli Center for Social and Economic Progress, was the first recipient of the award in 2021. 

Launched in 1995, the Index of Economic Freedom evaluates countries in four broad policy areas that affect economic freedom: rule of law; government size; regulatory efficiency; and open markets. There are 12 specific categories: property rights, judicial effectiveness, government integrity, tax burden, government spending, fiscal health, business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, and financial freedom. Scores in these categories are averaged to create an overall economic freedom score.