Diaspora Remittance Leverage as Institutional Reform: Natural Experiment Evidence from Hispaniola

Here's a comprehensive Zenodo description explaining all files and their use in Google Colab: Replication Materials: Haiti-Dominican Republic Natural Experiment Overview This repository contains complete replication materials for "Shared Island, Divergent Institutions: The Dominican Republic as Counterfactual Evidence for Legal Infrastructure Investment in Postcolonial Civil Law Systems." All analyses are reproducible in Google Colab with zero local installation required. Repository Contents 📊 Primary Data IPRI- 2007 - 2025 data[25].xlsx (437 KB)Complete IPRI dataset (2007-2025) for 144 countries including Haiti, Dominican Republic, and all comparator nations. Contains overall IPRI scores plus component indices (Legal Protection [LP], Physical Property Rights [PPR], Intellectual Property Rights [IPR]). 📓 Analysis Notebooks (Google Colab Ready) 1. HISPANIOLA.ipynb (973 KB) - Main Analysis NotebookCore statistical analysis including: Country-specific trajectory analysis with R² values Beta/sigma convergence tests Rank stability analysis (Spearman correlation) Descriptive statistics and summary tables How to use in Colab: # 1. Upload to Google Colab # 2. Mount Google Drive or upload IPRI xlsx file # 3. Run all cells sequentially # Generates: summary_statistics.csv, dr_haiti_comparison_data.csv 2. DIAGRAMS.ipynb (879 KB) - Publication FiguresCreates publication-quality figures for manuscript: Figure 1: IPRI Divergence trajectories (2007-2025) Figure 2: PPR Collapse comparison Regional comparison visualizations Dominican-Haiti side-by-side comparison How to use in Colab: # Requires: IPRI xlsx file, summary_statistics.csv # Generates: Figure1_IPRI_Divergence.png/.pdf, Figure2_PPR_Collapse.png/.pdf # All figures saved in publication-ready format (300 DPI) 3. ADVANCED.ipynb (1.05 MB) - Econometric & ML AnalysisAdvanced methodological analyses: K-means clustering (k=4, silhouette validation) Machine Learning (Random Forest, Gradient Boosting) Unit root tests (ADF, KPSS) Synthetic control method (2011 treatment) Difference-in-differences (with limitations note) Component mechanism decomposition (LP/PPR/IPR) How to use in Colab: # Most comprehensive notebook - runs ALL analyses # Requires: IPRI xlsx file # Runtime: ~3-5 minutes # Generates: All PNG figures + haiti_dr_analysis_summary.csv 📈 Generated Figures Publication Figures (Manuscript): Figure1_IPRI_Divergence.png/.pdf - Main trajectory comparison Figure2_PPR_Collapse.pdf/.png - Physical property rights component breakdown Supplementary Analysis Figures: haiti_dr_trajectories.png - Linear trends with R² values convergence_tests.png - Beta/sigma/rank stability (3-panel) clustering_analysis.png - K-means results with elbow method ml_analysis.png - Random Forest/Gradient Boosting performance synthetic_control.png - Counterfactual DR construction did_analysis.png - Difference-in-differences visualization mechanism_decomposition.png - LP/PPR/IPR gap breakdown regional_comparison.png - Caribbean & Latin America context dominican_haiti_comparison.png - Detailed side-by-side 📋 Data Tables (CSV) summary_statistics.csv - Descriptive statistics by country dr_haiti_comparison_data.csv - Year-by-year comparison dataset haiti_dr_analysis_summary.csv - Complete analysis results table 📖 Documentation README.md - Detailed methodology, data sources, variable definitions 🚀 Quick Start in Google Colab Option 1: Run Complete Analysis (Recommended) # 1. Open ADVANCED.ipynb in Google Colab # 2. Upload IPRI- 2007 - 2025 data[25].xlsx when prompted # 3. Run all cells (Runtime > Run all) # 4. Download all generated figures from Files panel Option 2: Reproduce Manuscript Figures Only # 1. Open DIAGRAMS.ipynb in Google Colab # 2. Upload IPRI xlsx file # 3. Run all cells # 4. Download Figure1 and Figure2 (PNG/PDF) Option 3: Basic Descriptive Analysis # 1. Open HISPANIOLA.ipynb in Google Colab # 2. Upload IPRI xlsx file # 3. Run all cells # 4. Download CSV tables 📦 Dependencies (Auto-Installed in Colab) All notebooks include automatic package installation: pandas, numpy - Data manipulation matplotlib, seaborn - Visualization scipy, statsmodels - Statistical tests scikit-learn - Machine learning & clustering linearmodels - Panel data econometrics arch - Unit root tests openpyxl - Excel file reading No manual installation required - all dependencies install automatically when you run the first cell. 🔬 Methodological Notes Data Availability Haiti: 2013-2025 (11 years) - IPRI range: 2.13-3.40 Dominican Republic: 2007-2025 (19 years) - IPRI range: 3.96-5.03 Treatment year: 2011 (Ciudad Juan Bosch Law 189-11) Key Limitations DID Constraint: Haiti data begins 2013, so no pre-2011 overlap for true difference-in-differences. We use synthetic control method as primary causal inference strategy. Sample Size: N=16 countries for clustering (14 comparators + 2 target countries). Unit Roots: Both Haiti & DR exhibit non-stationary time series (ADF p>0.05), consistent with systematic trends. Reproducibility All random processes use random_state=42 for exact replication All figures saved at 300 DPI for publication quality Complete analysis runtime: ~3-5 minutes on Google Colab free tier 📊 Key Findings (Replicated from Notebooks) Trajectory Analysis: Haiti: -0.0563 points/year (R²=0.541, p=0.0099) - 37% decline Dominican Republic: +0.0318 points/year (R²=0.359, p=0.0067) - 17% improvement Divergence rate: 0.0881 points/year (~0.88 points per decade) Clustering: Haiti assigned to unique Cluster 3 (alone, worst trajectory) DR assigned to Cluster 2 (with Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica) ANOVA F=18.01, p<0.001 (highly significant) Synthetic Control: Treatment effect: +0.050 IPRI points (post-2011) Optimal weights: Nicaragua (42%), El Salvador (29%), Mexico (20%), Chile (8%) Machine Learning: Test R² = 0.988 (Gradient Boosting) Feature importance: LP (47%) > IPR (38%) > PPR (14%) 📧 Contact & Citation For questions about replication or data: Scott Brown (Universidad de Puerto Rico): [e-mail] Adam Welker (Utah Valley University) Paul LaTortue (Université de Notre Dame d'Haiti) Theany Calderon-Abreu (Universidad de Puerto Rico) Suggested Citation: Welker, A., LaTortue, P., Calderon-Abreu, T., & Brown, S. (2025). Shared Island, Divergent Institutions: The Dominican Republic as Counterfactual Evidence for Legal Infrastructure Investment in Postcolonial Civil Law Systems [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17695109 📜 License All materials licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).You are free to share and adapt with appropriate attribution. Copyright © 2025 The Authors. 🔗 Related Materials Preprint: [Link when available] Journal submission: Constitutional Political Economy (under review) Companion paper: 17-country Spanish civil law panel analysis Code repository: All notebooks maintained on Zenodo with version control This repository provides complete transparency for peer review and enables exact replication of all analyses, figures, and tables in the manuscript.