DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17715519
title: The Equilibrium Lock: Why Hispanic Civil Law Countries Don't Converge

description: Description:

This dataset presents a comprehensive analysis of the heterogeneous trajectories of property rights in Spanish civil law countries from 2007 to 2025. The research explores the dynamics of institutional change using empirical models, machine learning, and advanced statistical techniques. The dataset includes replication materials for the main paper and Online Appendix B, which provides detailed comparative case studies of Uruguay and Venezuela's divergent property rights trajectories.

Files:

Main Paper Replication Materials:



ReadMe.md (10.36 KB): Detailed documentation of the analysis methodology and structure of the dataset.

SYMBOLIC.ipynb (858.43 KB): Jupyter Notebook containing the code used for analysis, visualizations, and results interpretation.

paper_table2_panel_regressions.csv (317 bytes): CSV file summarizing the panel regression results presented in Paper Table 2.

figure1_temporal_dynamics.png (1.76 MB): Visualization depicting the temporal dynamics of IPRI trajectories across selected countries.

figure2_scatter.png (212.36 KB): Scatter plot illustrating institutional change between 2007 and 2025.

figure3_country_slopes.png (150.73 KB): Bar graph showing country-specific institutional change rates over time.

figure4_ml_predictions.png (270.22 KB): Visualization of machine learning predictions of institutional trajectories.

institutional_changes.csv (715 bytes): CSV file detailing the institutional changes observed over the analysis period.

country_trends.csv (1.14 KB): CSV file containing country-specific trends in property rights evaluations.

cluster_membership.csv (2.45 KB): CSV file demonstrating cluster memberships derived from trajectory analysis.


Online Appendix B - Comparative Case Study Materials:



Figure_B1_IPRI_Uruguay_Venezuela.png (1.5 MB): IPRI property rights trajectories for Uruguay and Venezuela (2007-2025) with event annotations showing digital reforms and institutional capture episodes. Demonstrates 2.72-point divergence from identical Spanish civil law origins.

Figure_B2_VDem_Uruguay_Venezuela.png (1.3 MB): V-Dem expert-coded property rights assessments (2005-2023) showing formal legal protections versus practical administrative capacity. Illustrates decoupling between de jure rules and de facto enforcement.

FIGURE_B_1.ipynb (45 KB): Jupyter Notebook generating Figure B.1 with complete IPRI trajectory analysis, linear regression statistics, and event annotations.

FIGURE_B_2.ipynb (52 KB): Jupyter Notebook generating Figure B.2 with V-Dem data processing, comparative trajectories, and interpretation of formal-practical divergence.


Primary Datasets:



IPRI- 2007 - 2025 data[25].xlsx (437.20 KB): Excel file with the International Property Rights Index dataset spanning 2007-2025 for 85 countries across all legal families.

V-Dem-CY-Core-v15.csv (204.19 MB): Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Core Country-Year dataset version 15, including expert-coded property rights variables (v2clprptym) for 2005-2023 period used in Appendix B comparative analysis.


Keywords: Property Rights, Institutional Change, Time Trends, Machine Learning, Econometrics, Spanish Civil Law, Legal Origins, Uruguay, Venezuela, Digital Governance, Cadastral Modernization, Judicial Independence

Licenses: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Funding: None