The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) is a private, non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 1990. The Institute’s mission is to promote and consolidate the ideas of individual freedom and responsibility, free market, and limited government.
The organisation brings together scholars from different disciplines and conducts interdisciplinary research to enrich public discourse with interdisciplinary narratives. It publishes dozens of analytical papers each year, actively communicates in the media, implements economic and citizenship education programmes, publishes books, and organizes conferences, radio programmes, seminars, and training courses.
The Lithuanian Free Market Institute cooperates with international and national institutions worldwide with similar objectives and is a member of the Atlas Network and EPICENTER.
According to the 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute is ranked 6th among public policy think tanks in Central and Eastern Europe and among the top 1% of the world’s strongest institutes. In 2023, Atlas Network named the Lithuanian Free Market Institute among the top 6 public policy centres in the world and 3 in Europe.
The Institute has twice won the prestigious Templeton Freedom Award. In 2022, the President of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Elena Leontjeva, was awarded the Sir Antony Fisher Award for her commitment to the cause of freedom and her services to Lithuania.
Education is an integral part of the Institute’s activities. The Education Centre of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, founded in 2012, and later renamed as Prospera Academy, has published the economics textbooks ”Economics in 31 Hours”, ”Citizen in 31 Hour”, ”I, Citizen to be”, and annually organises initiatives for the young, such as the National Economics Exam and the Economics Quiz, or debates competition the Freedom Talks.
The Lithuanian Free Market Institute is funded exclusively by private individuals, companies, organisations, and foundations that support its activities and objectives, and does not accept public funding. In more than thirty years of operation, it has cooperated with all Lithuanian governments that have received a mandate from the electorate and has maintained its independence from political parties. This has enabled the Institute to consistently implement the ideas of individual freedom and limited government.
Since 2016, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute has undertaken interdisciplinary research on ”Scarcity, Morality and Public Policy”. Their starting point is the functioning of imperfect and mortal human beings in a finite world, which reveals itself as a constant dialogue with scarcity, overcoming concrete scarcities, and multiplying goods. In this context, scarcity emerges as a precondition for freedom and cooperation. For the first time, the phenomenon of scarcity has been brought from the margins of academia to the center of research and analyzed from the perspective of the humanities and social disciplines: philosophy, theology, psychology, anthropology, sociology and economics.
In 2017, a collection of articles ”The Phenomenon of Scarcity: Being, Man and Community”, published by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute in cooperation with the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, was presented at the Vilnius Book Fair and later published in English and German. Based on interdisciplinary research on scarcity, the documentary film ”Sublime Thirst” was produced in 2019.
The Lithuanian Free Market Institute was founded on 20 November 1990 by six economists, Kęstutis Glaveckas, Nijolė Žambaitė, Petras Auštrevičius, Dainius Pupkevičius, Elena Leontjeva, Darius Mockus, who jointly authored a book entitled ”Market Economics and State Regulation”.
In 1993, the Institute popularized the currency board model, which was enshrined in the Law on the Credibility of the Litas and protected the stability of the national currency for 21 years.
In 1995, the Institute formulated a corporate tax model known as the distributed profits tax. From 1997 to 2002, reinvested profits were tax-free in Lithuania; a move to a distributed profit tax was planned, but the reform was postponed. This model was implemented in Estonia in 2000, followed by Latvia and, to a lesser extent, Poland.
The Lithuanian Free Market Institute regularly conducts research on important economic and policy issues, develops reform concepts, provides expert opinions on draft laws and regulations, and assists the authorities by advising on how to better implement free market principles in Lithuania.
Over more than 30 years of activity, the independent and principled voice of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute has been heard by both local and international institutions. Since its launch in 1999, the International Monetary Fund’s mission has consulted the Institute’s analysts annually on the country’s economic and social problems and their potential solutions.
Since 1999, at the request of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute has provided opinions on various legal acts. Between 2000 and 2005, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute advised the World Bank on its anti-corruption strategy.
Every year, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, together with the Fraser Institute, a Canadian think-tank, prepares and presents the World Index of Economic Freedom, the International Tax Competitiveness Index with The Tax Foundation, and the Nanny State Index with EPICENTER.
Since 2011, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute’s Lithuanian Municipality Index has spurred reforms at the local governance level, providing direction and raising the bar for local government policy. The Index has been applied in Greece, Georgia, Albania, and Kenya.
In 2014, a unique online calculator mokumokescius.lt was created that allows everyone to calculate how much tax they pay on their salary and how much they pay on goods and services. Once you know how much tax you pay in a year, you also get your own personal cash register receipt showing how the tax you have paid is used.
In 2018, on the initiative of the Free Market Institute of Lithuania, the Respect for Taxpayers Day was added to the list of commemorative days of the Republic of Lithuania. Each year, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute invites to thank taxpayers for their role in creating and sustaining the wealth of the state and educates the public about the challenges and rights of taxpayers.
The Institute regularly makes proposals to improve the legislative process, recommendations to improve the quality of lawmaking, proposals to the Government to reduce the regulatory burden, to improve the efficiency of business supervision, to improve labour market conditions, and to amend the taxation of investments.
The analytical work of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute focuses not only on Lithuania but also on EU and international issues, such as the European Union’s single market, budget policy, global minimum corporate tax, regulation of digital markets and platform work, and universal basic income.
Since its inception, the Institute has worked with all political parties and governments and has been invited to serve on the teams of the Lithuanian President and the Government. Over the years, the Institute has become a valuable source of information for the media, where informed opinions and competent explanations are sought.
In 2012, the Education Centre of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute was established, later renamed as Prospera Academy. Its activities are aimed at pupils, students, teachers and education professionals.
One of its best-known projects is the textbook Economics in 31 Hours. The textbook is used by students in Lithuania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Uganda, Georgia and Greece. The 8th edition of the textbook was published in 2023 and updated to the general curriculum.
Awards:
Citizen in 31 Hours is a methodological tool for all teachers of civics, citizenship, and economics in grades 9-12. The methodological material consists of 31 lessons on various social topics, each lesson covering a part of the general curricula in economics, ethics, and citizenship. In 2023, it was awarded the European Award for Innovative Teaching (general education category).
Lithuanian students have been invited to study the course ”Capitalism and Freedom” taught by the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, the essay competition ”Freedom Studies”, and the economics course for students and professionals – ”Realistic Economic Analysis” – taught by well-known professionals from abroad and elsewhere.
From 2019, the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, together with its partners, organises the National Economics Exam, and from 2022, together with Lithuanian Radio and Television, the National Economics Quiz. The initiatives are supported by the higher education institutions in the country, the Bank of Lithuania, the Ministry of Finance, and other organisations.
Thank you for subscribing!
