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markdown# Shared Island, Divergent Institutions
## Replication Package for Dominican Republic-Haiti Property Rights Analysis

[![DOI](https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.17676579.svg)](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17676579)
[![License: CC BY 4.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-CC%20BY%204.0-lightgrey.svg)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

---

## Authors

Theany Calderon-Abreu  
Professor and Chair, Management Department  
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus  

Paul LaTortue  
Dean, Université Notre Dame d'Haïti  
Former Director, Unité Centrale de Gestion, Republic of Haiti  

Adam Welker  
Professor of Finance  
Utah Valley University  

Scott Brown (Contact Person)  
Professor of Finance  
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus  
University of Granada (Research Affiliation)  
📧 scott.brown@upr.edu  

---

## Related Publication

Paper:  
Calderon-Abreu, T., LaTortue, P., Welker, A., & Brown, S. (2025). Shared Island, Divergent Institutions: The Dominican Republic as Counterfactual Evidence for Legal Infrastructure Investment in Postcolonial Civil Law Systems. Under review at World Development.

Preprint: [Add link when available on SSRN/arXiv]

---

## Overview

This repository contains the complete replication package for our comparative institutional analysis of property rights divergence between the Dominican Republic and Haiti (2007-2025).

### Key Findings

- Overall divergence: Haiti's IPRI score fell 37% (3.40 → 2.13) while the Dominican Republic improved 17% (3.96 → 4.61)
- Physical Property Rights collapse: Haiti's PPR score declined 79% (3.40 → 0.72), creating a 3.60-point gap
- Gap expansion: Institutional divergence more than doubled from 1.20 points (2013) to 2.48 points (2025)
- Natural experiment: Two countries sharing an island, similar colonial legal systems, opposite institutional trajectories

### Research Question

Why did property rights institutions in the Dominican Republic and Haiti—sharing Hispaniola and inheriting similar civil law systems—diverge so dramatically since 2007?

### Main Argument

Institutional investment in legal infrastructure (digital cadastres, notarial reform, vernacular legal access) explains divergence better than legal origins theory or postcolonial constraints.

---

## Repository Contents

### Data Files

| File | Description | Size |
|------|-------------|------|
| `IPRI_2007_2025_data.xlsx` | International Property Rights Index dataset (2007-2025) | 437 KB |
| | - 2,437 observations across 27 variables | |
| | - 125+ countries | |
| | - Source: Property Rights Alliance (2025) | |

### Code Files

| File | Description | Format |
|------|-------------|--------|
| `DR_Haiti_IPRI_Analysis.ipynb` | Main analysis notebook | Jupyter Notebook |
| | - Data loading and validation | |
| | - Statistical analysis | |
| | - Visualizations | |
| | - Tables generation | |

### Output Files

Generated when you run the analysis:

- `Figure1_IPRI_Divergence.png` - Time series visualization
- `Figure2_PPR_Collapse.png` - Dual-panel Physical Property Rights comparison
- `Table1_TimeSeries.csv` - Complete time series data
- `Table2_Components.csv` - Component decomposition (2025)
- `Table3_Regional.csv` - Regional comparison data
- `Summary_Statistics.csv` - Key metrics and correlations

### Documentation

| File | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `README.md` | This file - overview and instructions |
| `CODEBOOK.md` | Variable definitions and data dictionary |
| `requirements.txt` | Python package dependencies |

---

## Quick Start Guide

### Option 1: Run in Google Colab (Easiest)

No installation required!

1. Open the notebook:
   - Go to [Google Colab](https://colab.research.google.com)
   - Click `File → Upload notebook`
   - Select `DR_Haiti_IPRI_Analysis.ipynb`

2. Upload the data:
   - Click the folder icon 📁 in the left sidebar
   - Click upload button
   - Select `IPRI_2007_2025_data.xlsx`

3. Run the analysis:
   - Click `Runtime → Run all`
   - Wait 2-3 minutes for completion

4. Download results:
   - Click folder icon 📁
   - Right-click generated files
   - Select "Download"

### Option 2: Run Locally (Python Required)

Prerequisites:
- Python 3.7 or higher
- Jupyter Notebook

Installation:
```bash
# Clone or download this repository
# Install required packages
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Launch Jupyter
jupyter notebook

# Open DR_Haiti_IPRI_Analysis.ipynb
# Run all cells
```

### Option 3: View Results Without Running

If you just want to see the analysis without running code:
- Open `DR_Haiti_IPRI_Analysis.ipynb` in GitHub or Jupyter nbviewer
- All outputs are preserved in the notebook

---

## Data Description

### Variables

Core IPRI Components:
- `IPRI` - Overall International Property Rights Index (0-10)
- `LP` - Legal and Political Environment (0-10)
- `PPR` - Physical Property Rights (0-10)
- `IPR` - Intellectual Property Rights (0-10)

Geographic/Temporal:
- `Country` - Country name
- `Año` - Year (2007-2025)
- `ISO3` - ISO 3-letter country code

See `CODEBOOK.md` for complete variable descriptions

### Coverage

Dominican Republic:
- 19 years (2007-2025)
- Complete data across all components

Haiti:
- 13 years (2013-2025)
- Complete data from 2013 onward

### Data Source

Property Rights Alliance. (2025). International Property Rights Index 2025. Washington, DC: Tholos Foundation. https://www.propertyrightsalliance.org/

Acknowledgment: We thank Lorenzo Montanari, Executive Director of the Property Rights Alliance, for providing access to the complete IPRI dataset.

---

## Key Statistical Results

### Divergence Metrics

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| DR improvement (2007-2025) | +16.6% |
| Haiti decline (2013-2025) | -37.3% |
| Overall gap (2025) | 2.48 points |
| PPR gap (2025) | 3.60 points |
| Gap expansion rate | 0.088 points/year |

### Component Breakdown (2025)

| Component | Dominican Republic | Haiti | Gap |
|-----------|-------------------|-------|-----|
| Legal & Political Environment | 4.58 | 2.23 | 2.35 |
| Physical Property Rights | 4.32 | 0.72 | 3.60 |
| Intellectual Property Rights | 4.97 | 3.48 | 1.49 |
| Overall IPRI | 4.61 | 2.13 | 2.48 |

### Regional Context (2025)

| Country | IPRI Score | Legal System |
|---------|-----------|--------------|
| Costa Rica | 6.11 | Spanish Civil Law |
| Jamaica | 5.34 | English Common Law |
| Panama | 5.15 | Spanish Civil Law |
| Dominican Republic | 4.61 | Spanish Civil Law |
| Colombia | 4.38 | Spanish Civil Law |
| Haiti | 2.13 | French Civil Law |

---

## Replication Instructions

### What the Analysis Does

1. Loads IPRI data for all countries (2007-2025)
2. Extracts and validates Dominican Republic and Haiti records
3. Calculates divergence metrics:
   - Overall IPRI trends
   - Component decomposition
   - Percentage changes
   - Gap expansion rates
4. Generates visualizations:
   - Figure 1: Time series comparison
   - Figure 2: Physical Property Rights collapse
5. Produces statistical tables:
   - Time series data
   - Component breakdowns
   - Regional comparisons
6. Exports results in CSV and PNG formats

### Expected Runtime

- Google Colab: 2-3 minutes
- Local machine: 1-2 minutes

### System Requirements

Minimum:
- Python 3.7+
- 2 GB RAM
- 10 MB disk space

Recommended:
- Python 3.10+
- 4 GB RAM

---

## Citation

### Data Repository
```bibtex
@dataset{calderon_abreu_2025_zenodo,
  author       = {Calderon-Abreu, Theany and
                  LaTortue, Paul and
                  Welker, Adam and
                  Brown, Scott},
  title        = {Shared Island, Divergent Institutions: 
                  Replication Package},
  year         = 2025,
  publisher    = {Zenodo},
  version      = {v2},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.17676579},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17676579}
}
```

### Paper (When Published)
```bibtex
@article{calderon_abreu_2025_property,
  author       = {Calderon-Abreu, Theany and
                  LaTortue, Paul and
                  Welker, Adam and
                  Brown, Scott},
  title        = {Shared Island, Divergent Institutions: 
                  The Dominican Republic as Counterfactual Evidence 
                  for Legal Infrastructure Investment in 
                  Postcolonial Civil Law Systems},
  journal      = {World Development},
  year         = 2025,
  note         = {Under review}
}
```

### APA Style

Calderon-Abreu, T., LaTortue, P., Welker, A., & Brown, S. (2025). Shared Island, Divergent Institutions: Replication package [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17676579

---

## License

This replication package is licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made

---

## Contact

For questions about replication or data:

📧 Scott Brown  
Graduate School of Business  
University of Puerto Rico  
San Juan, PR 00925  
Email: scott.brown@upr.edu

For questions about Haitian institutions:

📧 Paul LaTortue  
Université Notre Dame d'Haïti  
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

For questions about Dominican institutions:

📧 Theany Calderon-Abreu  
University of Puerto Rico  
Río Piedras Campus

---

## Version History

### Version 2.0 (November 21, 2024)
- Updated IPRI data to include 2025 release
- Added complete author attribution
- Added comprehensive documentation (README, CODEBOOK)
- Added requirements.txt
- Improved code documentation

### Version 1.0 (November 21, 2024)
- Initial release
- IPRI data 2007-2024
- Basic analysis notebook

---

## Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge:

- Lorenzo Montanari (Executive Director, Property Rights Alliance) for providing the IPRI dataset
- Property Rights Alliance for maintaining the IPRI project
- Colleagues at UPR and Université Notre Dame d'Haïti for valuable feedback
- Reviewers and editors for constructive comments

---

## Additional Resources

Property Rights Alliance:  
https://www.propertyrightsalliance.org/

IPRI Methodology:  
https://www.propertyrightsalliance.org/methodology

Related Research:
- World Bank Doing Business Indicators
- World Justice Project Rule of Law Index
- Freedom House Freedom in the World

---

## Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

---

## Troubleshooting

### Common Issues

Problem: "File not found" error when running notebook  
Solution: Make sure `IPRI_2007_2025_data.xlsx` is in the same folder or uploaded to Colab

Problem: "Module not found" error  
Solution: Run `pip install -r requirements.txt` or install packages individually

Problem: Figures don't display  
Solution: Make sure matplotlib backend is set correctly. Add `%matplotlib inline` at top of notebook

Problem: Excel file won't load  
Solution: Install openpyxl: `pip install openpyxl`

### Getting Help

If you encounter issues not covered here:
1. Check the [Issues](https://github.com/yourusername/repo/issues) page (if using GitHub mirror)
2. Email scott.brown@upr.edu with:
   - Description of the problem
   - Error message (if any)
   - Your system (Windows/Mac/Linux, Python version)

---

## Future Updates

Planned additions:
- Robustness checks with alternative indices
- Extended analysis including more Caribbean countries
- Interactive visualizations
- Additional institutional variables

To receive updates:
- Watch this Zenodo repository
- Check our lab website [add if available]
- Follow our work on ResearchGate/Academia.edu

---

Last updated: November 21, 2024

For the most current version of this replication package, visit:  
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17672717 (version-independent DOI)