I bet economic freedom itself has little impact on the amount of social distance separating folks of differing groups. It may conceivably be one among several factors that when combined make some kind of meaningful difference but on its own having a market economy enshrining personal property rights is insufficient - in my opinion - to accurately predict how people of a culture will tend to perceive, judge, and interact with each other in all aspects of daily life. Human nature is not quite selfish enough for profit motive to overcome the innate tendency of human beings to compete among themselves both as individuals
and as members of larger, oftentimes tribalistic in-groups. Aside from that, my understanding is that people are usually intuitive in making their choices (and then hastily find ways to rationalize those choices afterward) instead of relying on cold, calculating logic to make all of their decisions. That is to imply the notion of
homo economicus fails to offer us an empirically-sound conceptualization for human behavior.
Those are my initial thoughts. Maybe after reading the piece posted before I'll be a bit swayed. For now though I suppose the question, "Does economic freedom foster tolerance?" seems something like, "Does a liberal application of ketchup foster deliciousness?" to me. The latent potential for it is certainly there but for now I can't see it being the most important (or relevant) variable at work.
