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 a complete replication package for the statistical analysis comparing property rights institutions between the Dominican Republic and Haiti from 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 dr_haiti_ipri_analysis.ipynb - Jupyter notebook containing all analysis code ipri_data.xlsx or ipri_data.csv - IPRI dataset (2437 observations, 27 variables, 2007-2025) Output files generated by analysis: dominican_haiti_comparison.png - 4-panel time series visualization regional_comparison.png - Regional benchmarking bar chart dr_haiti_comparison_data.csv - Extracted time series data summary_statistics.csv - Key statistical metrics Running the Analysis in Google Colab Step 1: Upload Files to Google Colab Go to Google Colab Click File → Upload notebook and select dr_haiti_ipri_analysis.ipynb Once the notebook opens, upload the data file: Click the folder icon in the left sidebar Click the upload button (document with up arrow) Upload ipri_data.xlsx or ipri_data.csv Step 2: Install Required Libraries (if needed) The notebook uses standard Python data science libraries. If any are missing, run: !pip install pandas numpy matplotlib seaborn scipy Step 3: Run the Analysis Run all cells: Click Runtime → Run all in the menu Or run sequentially: Use Shift + Enter to execute each cell in order The notebook will: Load and validate the IPRI dataset Extract Dominican Republic and Haiti records Calculate institutional divergence metrics Generate statistical analyses (correlations, regressions) Create visualizations Export formatted results Step 4: Download Results After execution completes: Click the folder icon in the left sidebar Right-click generated files to download: PNG visualizations CSV data exports Summary statistics Data Structure Dataset: 2,437 observations across 27 variables Key Variables: IPRI - Overall International Property Rights Index LP - Legal and Political Environment PPR - Physical Property Rights IPR - Intellectual Property Rights Año - Year (2007-2025) Country Coverage: Dominican Republic: 19 years (2007-2025) Haiti: 13 years (2013-2025) Outputs Explained Visualizations dominican_haiti_comparison.png - Four-panel figure showing: Overall IPRI trends Legal Environment (LP) comparison Physical Property Rights (PPR) comparison Intellectual Property (IPR) comparison regional_comparison.png - Bar chart comparing both countries against regional benchmarks (Costa Rica, Jamaica, Panama, Colombia) Data Exports dr_haiti_comparison_data.csv - Time series data for both countries summary_statistics.csv - Statistical metrics including: Correlation coefficients Regression slopes Component gaps Volatility measures Key Statistical Results DR IPRI change (2007-2025): +0.66 points (+16.6%) Haiti IPRI change (2013-2025): -1.27 points (-37.3%) Gap expansion: From 1.20 points (2013) to 2.48 points (2025) Haiti PPR collapse: -78.8% decline (3.40 → 0.72) Annual divergence rate: 0.0881 points/year Citation If you use this analysis, please cite: [Your Name] (2025). Dominican Republic-Haiti Property Rights Institutional Divergence Analysis: Replication Package. Zenodo. https://doi.org/[DOI will be assigned] Requirements Python 3.7+ pandas 2.0+ numpy 1.20+ matplotlib 3.3+ seaborn 0.11+ scipy 1.7+ Support For questions or issues with replication, please [open an issue/contact information]. License [Specify license - e.g., CC BY 4.0, MIT, etc.] Last updated: November 2025