Property Rights Alliance (PRA), in conjunction with 37 global partners, yesterday released the inaugural International Property Rights Index (IPRI) at an event at the National Press Club...
 
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 also gives researchers, policymakers and the public around the globe a tool for comparative analysis and future research.  For international property investors it provides an independent yardstick through which risk can be assessed.

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."

Link between property rights and economic development

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 www.InternationalPropertyRightsIndex.org.

SOURCE: www.prnewswire.com; Property Rights Alliance; Americans for Tax Reform