Question

The International Property Rights Index scores countries based on the legal and political environment and how well property rights are protected. Go online and find a recent ranking. Choose three countries with high scores and three with low scores. Then find estimates of GDP per person in each of these six countries. What pattern do you find? Give two possible interpretations of the pattern.

Answer 1

This is the table presenting the International Property Rights Index scores and the GDP per person of three countries with high scores and the three countries having a low score.

Country	International Property Rights Index scores (2019)	GDP per person (2019)
Australia	8.363	57990.00 USD
United States of America	8.202	65,112 USD
Japan	8.323	40,847 USD
Republic of Yemen	2.671	943.34 USD
Venezuela	2.895	2,548 USD
Nigeria	3.787	2,222 USD

This table states that the countries which have a high International Property Rights Index scores also have a high purchasing power than the companies that have lower International Property Rights Index scores. This reflects that the people of high scoring countries can purchase more private property but the poor score countries cannot afford it as they do not have money to invest in properties. The people of high scoring countries have more money and they are wealthy in comparison to the poor countries.

Two possible interpretations:

1. It implies that the person who is able to own property can use it as collateral and they can purchase something else with it. It means that they have tangible assets which will help them to become wealthier.

2. This also reflects that there is more chance of corruption and illegal methods can be used in the low scoring countries for attaining the property because the people do not have a choice as they do not have money. But, in contrast, the people of the high scoring countries will do not have to look for illegal methods of acquiring property as they already own their own property.