DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17695109
title: Diaspora Remittance Leverage as Institutional Reform: Natural Experiment Evidence from Hispaniola

description: 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): scott.brown@upr.edu

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.