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Property rights index released

The 2007 IPRI measures the performance of seventy countries in the protection of such areas as land titles and copyrights, assets and patents, showing the effect on a country’s economic well-being. The event included a presentation of the report’s findings and a panel discussion with Chris Israel (US coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement at the Department of Commerce), Tim Kane, PhD (director, Center for International Trade and Economics (CITE) and co-author of the annual Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal Economic Freedom Index), and Syed Kamall MEP (member of European Parliament and a member of the Committee on International Trade, United Kingdom).
The International Property Rights Index seeks to assist underperforming countries to develop robust economies through an emphasis on sound property law, creating social and economic stability and the freedom to trade in goods and ideas. The Index gives researchers, policymakers and the public around the globe a tool for comparative analysis and future research.
In the introduction to the report, Hernando de Soto, the world-leading economist and property rights advocate, writes that in the developing world these “essential legal mechanisms easily available to the elite entrepreneurs in their country and all business people in advanced nations” are what the poor need to “allow them to do business in markets outside the limited confines of family and acquaintances.” The report’s author, Alexandra Christina Horst, was PRA’s 2006 Hernando de Soto Fellow.
“Personal property rights are deeply rooted in our modern societies and possess far greater importance than ever before”, states Scott A. LaGanga, PRA executive director. “Economic growth is inextricably linked with ownership, and the IPRI reflects the existence of a strong, positive correlation between sound property protections and a country’s economic well-being.”
The 2007 IPRI analyzes Legal and Political Environment (LP), Physical Property Rights (PPR), and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in 70 countries accounting for 95% of world GDP: the countries in the top quartile of the Index have an average GDP per capita of more than seven times those in the bottom quartile. The final results show an 89 percent correlation between GDP per capita and the IPRI score for each country: the stronger the rights of ownership, the better off the population.
“There are some who incorrectly claim that strict property protections prevent developing countries and their citizens from unlocking their potential,” continued LaGanga. “Such assertions are the opposite of the reality on the ground. The 2007 IPRI presents an argument based on concrete, measurable data; well-structured private property rights allow individuals and firms to feel secure and provide them with an incentive to innovate and produce.”
For more information, a country-by-country analysis, the list of global partner organizations or the report in its entirety, visit http://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/.
The 2007 IPRI partner organizations include: Alternate Solutions Institute (Pakistan), Asociacion de Consumidores Libres (Costa Rica), Centre for Free Enterprise (Korea), Centro de Investigaciones Economicas Nacionales (Guatemala), CEPOS (Denmark), Competere (Italy), Circulo Liberal (Uruguay), CIVITA (Norway), ESEADE University (Argentina), Eudoxa (Sweden), European Center for Economic Growth (Belgium/Austria), FREE (Poland), Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institut (Austria), Friedrich Naumann Foundation (East and Southeast Asia Regional Office), Fundacion Atlas 1853 (Argentina), Fundacion IDEA (Mexico), Fundacion Libertad (Panama), Fundacion Libertad y Democracia (Bolivia), IMANI: The Centre for Humane Education (Ghana), Initiative for Public Policy Analysis (Nigeria), Instituto de Libre Empresa (Peru), Instituto Ecuatoriano de Economia Politica (Ecuador), Instituto Liberdade (Brazil), Instituto Libertad y Progreso (Colombia), Instituto Para La Libertad y el Analisis de Politicas (Costa Rica), Institut Constant de Rebecque (Switzerland), Institute for Free Enterprise (Germany), Institute for Public Affairs (Australia), Inter Region Economic Network (Kenya), International Policy Network (United Kingdom), Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (Israel), Libertad y Desarrollo (Chile), Liberty Institute (India), Property Rights Alliance (United States), RSE - Centre for Social and Economic Research (Iceland), The Center for Institutional Analysis and Development (Romania), The Free Market Foundation (South Africa), The Lion Rock Institute (Hong Kong).