Porto Alegre, Brazil – People in countries that protect their physical and intellectual property enjoy a GDP per capita up to nine times greater than those without legal protection, the 2008 edition of the International Property Rights Index (IPRI), reveals today. Countries that protect property rights provide an essential foundation for peace, stability and prosperity, the Index shows: its calculations cover 115 countries, representing 96 per cent of the world’s GDP.
With regard to Brazil, the protection of property rights continues to be a challenge. According to Dr. Margaret Tse, CEO and researcher of Instituto Liberdade, the inefficient and weak legal structure for property rights protection shows the market distortions. The increase of government interference and service inefficiency, of taxes and fiscal burden, and the disrespect and the lack of enforceability of the property rights increase severe insecurity and hinder the investments on research, on technology and on human capital. It is inevitably the boundaries imposition on entrepreneurs and probably will lead to a setback in the economic development of the country.
Instituto Liberdade (Brazil) and 40 organizations from six continents joined the Property Rights Alliance in Washington, DC and its Hernando de Soto Fellowship program to disseminate the report.
Hernando De Soto, whose seminal work on property rights led to the conception of the IPRI, said this year’s results “provide further proof of the relationship between the robustness of a country’s property rights system and its economic development, revealing that much still needs to be done to extend property rights to more people, especially the poor.”
In order to incorporate and grasp the important aspects related to property rights protection, the 2008 IPRI focuses on three areas: Legal and Political Environment (LP), Physical Property Rights (PPR), and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The 115 countries represent 96% of world GDP: the study demonstrates that countries in the top quartile of the Index have an average GDP per capita more than nine times higher than those in the bottom quartile.
The International Property Rights Index will provide the public, researchers and policymakers, from across the globe, with a tool for comparative analysis and future research on global property rights. The Index seeks to assist underperforming countries to develop robust economies through an emphasis on sound property law.
For more information, such as a country-by-country analysis, list of global partner organizations, or the report in its entirety, visit www.InternationalPropertyRightsIndex.org. After April 8th, 2008, the Portuguese version of the IPRI will be available at the partner organization website in Brazil:
www.il-rs.org.br
