2013 Index shows the U.S. improving in Property Rights Protections
Sep 10, 2013
The Property Rights Alliance (PRA) is proud to announce the Sept. 10 release date of the 2013 International Property Rights Index (IPRI), which measures the intellectual and physical property rights of 131 nations from around the world. This year, 74 international organizations partnered with the PRA in Washington, DC and its Hernando de Soto Fellowship program to produce the seventh annual IPRI. The study was authored by PhD Candidate Francesco De Lorenzo, who served as this year’s Hernando de Soto Fellow.
The Index will provide an important source of information for policymakers and business communities who want to understand how the three core components of property rights systems (Legal and Political Environment; Physical Property Rights; Intellectual Property Rights) are protected or affected in the world:
• The IPRI emphasizes the great economic differences between countries with strong property rights and those without. Nations in top quintile such as Finland, Australia, and the United States enjoy an average national GDP per capita of $38,288 while nations in the second quintile, such as Ireland, Chile, and Malaysia have an average GDP per capita of $26,680. The third, fourth, and fifth quintile averages are $15,693, $5,141, and $5,545 respectively.
• This year the Index also presents four case studies on the status of property rights in four countries: Tunisia, Venezuela, China, and Thailand. The case study on Tunisia and the Arab Spring represents research conducted by Hernando de Soto’s team and explains why the lack of a fair property rights system represents one of the main reasons behind the uprising of the Arab Spring.
• The United States marked a slight improvement in its annual ranking, from the 18thposition in 2012 to a current rank of 17th, with a score of 7.6 out of 10.0. According to the report, the most significant improvement is seen in the Legal and Political Environment (LP) component, increasing 0.1 points to a score of 7.6. The United States’ highest score was in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) with a score of 8.6.
“The IPRI highlights the key role played by property rights not only in keeping an economic system fair and transparent but also in representing the backbone of any free market economy,” said Lorenzo Montanari, Executive Director of the Property Rights Alliance. “The four case studies presented in this report highlighted how different countries such as Tunisia, Venezuela, China and Thailand have been affected by lack of a fair and transparent property rights system. Counterfeit and pirated products and insufficient land registration are the most common problems affecting the economies of developing countries.”
To download the press realese, please click here.