Shared Island, Divergent Institutions: The Dominican Republic as Counterfactual Evidence for Legal Infrastructure Investment in Postcolonial Civil Law Systems

Dominican Republic-Haiti Property Rights Institutional Divergence Analysis

Overview

This repository contains the complete replication package for a comparative analysis of property rights institutions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti (2007-2025), using International Property Rights Index (IPRI) data.

Key Finding: The analysis documents a 106.6% expansion in the institutional gap between the two countries, with Physical Property Rights (PPR) accounting for the largest divergence (3.60-point gap in 2025).

Files Included

Analysis Code

• HISPANIOLA.ipynb (973 KB) - Main statistical analysis notebook
• DIAGRAMS.ipynb (879 KB) - Figure generation notebook

Data Files

• IPRI- 2007 - 2025 data[25].xlsx (437 KB) - Complete IPRI dataset
  • 2,437 observations across 27 variables
  • Coverage: 2007-2025, 125+ countries

Documentation

• README.md (12.9 KB) - Comprehensive documentation with:
  • Variable definitions
  • Replication instructions
  • Statistical methodology

Figures (Publication Quality)

• Figure1_IPRI_Divergence.png (267 KB) - Overall institutional divergence time series
• Figure1_IPRI_Divergence.pdf (41 KB) - Vector format for publication
• Figure2_PPR_Collapse.png (381 KB) - Physical Property Rights dual-panel comparison
• Figure2_PPR_Collapse.pdf (46 KB) - Vector format for publication

Additional Visualizations

• dominican_haiti_comparison.png (575 KB) - Four-panel component analysis
• regional_comparison.png (114 KB) - Caribbean regional benchmarking

Data Exports

• dr_haiti_comparison_data.csv (1.5 KB) - Time series data for both countries
• summary_statistics.csv (221 bytes) - Key divergence metrics

Quick Start: Running the Analysis

Option 1: Google Colab (Recommended - No Installation Required)

1. Upload the main notebook:
   • Go to Google Colab
   • Click File → Upload notebook
   • Select HISPANIOLA.ipynb
2. Upload the data:
   • Click the folder icon 📁 in the left sidebar
   • Click upload button
   • Select IPRI- 2007 - 2025 data[25].xlsx
3. Install required libraries:

   !pip install pandas numpy matplotlib seaborn scipy openpyxl

1. Run the analysis:
   • Click Runtime → Run all
   • Analysis completes in 2-3 minutes
2. Download results:
   • Generated files appear in the files sidebar
   • Right-click to download

Option 2: Generate Figures

1. Upload DIAGRAMS.ipynb to Google Colab
2. Upload IPRI- 2007 - 2025 data[25].xlsx
3. Run all cells
4. Download generated PNG and PDF figures

Data Structure

Dataset: 2,437 observations × 27 variables (2007-2025)

Core Variables:

• 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)
• Año - Year
• Country - Country name
• ISO3 - ISO 3-letter country code

Country Coverage:

• Dominican Republic: 19 years (2007-2025) - complete series
• Haiti: 13 years (2013-2025) - partial series

Key Statistical Results

Outputs Explained

Figures

Figure 1: Institutional Divergence (1 panel)

• Time series comparing overall IPRI scores
• Shows Dominican Republic improvement vs. Haiti collapse
• Shaded area illustrates growing gap

Figure 2: Physical Property Rights Collapse (2 panels)

• Left: Dominican Republic PPR stability (≈4.3)
• Right: Haiti PPR catastrophic decline (→0.72)
• Annotations for key events (Law 189-11, COVID-19/Moïse assassination)

Additional Visualizations:

• dominican_haiti_comparison.png - Four-panel component breakdown
• regional_comparison.png - Caribbean benchmarking against Costa Rica, Jamaica, Panama, Colombia

Data Exports

dr_haiti_comparison_data.csv contains:

• Year-by-year IPRI scores
• Component scores (LP, PPR, IPR)
• Calculated gaps

summary_statistics.csv contains:

• Correlation coefficients
• Regression slopes
• Component gaps
• Volatility measures
• Percentage changes

System Requirements

Software:

• Python 3.7 or higher
• Jupyter Notebook (or Google Colab)

Python Packages:

• pandas ≥ 2.0
• numpy ≥ 1.20
• matplotlib ≥ 3.3
• seaborn ≥ 0.11
• scipy ≥ 1.7
• openpyxl ≥ 3.0 (for Excel file reading)

Hardware:

• Minimum: 2 GB RAM
• Recommended: 4 GB RAM
• Disk space: 10 MB

Data Source

Property Rights Alliance. (2025). International Property Rights Index 2025. Washington, DC: Tholos Foundation.

Available at: https://www.propertyrightsalliance.org/

Acknowledgment: We thank the Property Rights Alliance for making the IPRI dataset publicly available.

License

This replication package is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

You are free to share and adapt this material with appropriate attribution.

Contact

For questions about replication or data access, please contact the journal editorial office.

Note

This replication package supports a manuscript currently under review. Complete citation information and permanent repository will be provided upon acceptance.

Last updated: November 2024