Haiti and the Dominican Republic both share the same land, located in the Caribbean, yet a striking difference in prosperity can be explored between the two. As a starting point, let’s take 1960 – where both countries had virtually the same real GDP per capita (Sancak and Jaramillo, 2007), stripping out the distorting effects of inflation. However, by 2005, the real GDP per capita for the Dominican Republic had tripled whilst Haiti’s GDP had halved. Alongside differences in each country’s wealth, there is a vast contrast in the unemployment rates. Haiti’s unemployment rate stands over double that of the Dominican Republic (O’Neill, 2023) sitting at 14.84% as of 2022 compared to 7.12% for the Dominican Republic. Now, we cannot be sure as to whether the unemployment is the cause, effect, or even a pure correlation to their wealth, however this leads us to question, what has occurred in the past 60 years that has resulted in such clear differences in the countries success and growth?
The three main questions to consider that may help us explain these differences are environmental factors: what natural resources both countries have, and if there have been any past conflicts or the levels of corruption and how this may have effected growth. However, ultimately, we will be looking at how the government has dealt with such challenges and therefore how government and politics can ‘make’ or ‘break’ a country. The region of Hispaniola – describing the island that is made up of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is said to be rich in oil, natural gas, gold, and copper. According to an article published in 2019, there have been government concerns in Haiti over the displacement of citizens as a result of introducing new mining practices as well as the remaining issue of environmental degradation still remains (WorldAtlas, 2019). This may be the cause of largely untapped natural oil and gas, even though they are said to have possibly one of the largest reserves in the whole world. Therefore, from an economic perspective, the country is inefficient and could rapidly increase wealth with no opportunity cost, yet we are unsure as to why the government has chosen not to. The exportation of natural resources in Haiti contributed towards 0.33% of the country’s real GDP in 2021 according to data from the World Bank (TheGlobalEconomy.com, 2023b). However, armed with the same resources and initial wealth (if we look back to the 1960’s) the Dominican Republic has utilised this which is displayed in that 2.08% of the country’s real GDP in 2021 was from income from their natural resources (TheGlobalEconomy.com, 2023a). This figure is over six times greater than that of Haiti’s, which could suggest a correlation between the utilisation of natural resources and GDP and therefore could explain the disparity between the two.
Moving onto a more political aspect, historical conflicts and corruption may have also caused this gap in prosperity. Using the Corruptions Perceptions Index (CPI), we can observe that the Dominican Republic shows much lower levels of corruption than that of Haiti. On a ranking of 180 countries – 180 being most corrupt and 0 being least, Haiti sits in the position of 171 (Transparency.org, 2022b), yet the Dominican Republic is much lower at 123 (Transparency.org, 2022a). Whilst both countries show higher than average levels of corruption, the extent of Haiti’s can again be argued as evidence for lack of development and hence low GDP, in comparison to the Dominican Republic. Although,
some may argue that lower GDP and therefore lower standards of living have resulted in this corruption as government officials aim to improve their individual quality of life. When examining this drastic divergence between the two countries, it is important recognise the different historical backgrounds of the two. The island of Hispaniola has had a long history of unification, division, and colonisation by both the French and the Spanish in the 19th century, resulting in the formation of the two separate states we know of today. The Dominican Republic gained independence from Haiti during the Dominican War of Independence in 1856, which resulted in the larger eastern side becoming the Dominican Republic, and the smaller piece of land on the west becoming Haiti. Prior to this, Haiti had sovereignty over the whole of Hispaniola, with citizens across the whole island under Jean-Pierre Boyer’s rule. However, following the war of Independence, Haiti’s land had shrunk and therefore led to overcrowding of colonies. This is even reflected in modern day figures with Haiti’s population density of 415 people per km2 (worldpopulationreview.com, 2023) being almost double that of the Dominican Republic of 235 people per km2 (www.worldometers.info, 2023). This could suggest a lack of land therefore decreasing the available factors of production for Haiti and limiting its economic capabilities. However, it could be said that with proper management strategies and hence a better government, that the country could still have the chance to prosper similarly to its eastern counterpart. Political instability has also greatly affected Haiti and following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, violence has ensued. According to the International Rescue Committee, armed gangs have taken over the capital city of Haiti, creating difficulties in the transportation of goods and the deliverance of services which the whole economy relies upon, therefore sending the country into despair (www.rescue.org, 2023). In contrast, since the Dominican civil war in 1965, the country has been fairly stable, allowing the government to focus on investments and the diversification of the economy.
Therefore, corruption and conflict can be linked to the use of natural resources in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It can be said that companies simply won’t want to invest lots of money in a country that may either embezzle their funds or be too focused on civil disputes which in turn has resulted in such a distinct imbalance between the two countries that share the same land and resources. In essence, one can come to conclude that this wealth polarity is as a result of poor government, corruption, and conflict. Nonetheless, an argument still stands that low GDP and standard of living have resulted in disdain towards corrupt governments which may contribute towards internal conflicts in Haiti. Thus leaves us to question the causes of these differences between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and how these relationships have shaped these two entirely polar countries.
Reference list
O’Neill, A. (2023a). Dominican Republic – unemployment rate 1999-2020. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/527469/unemployment-rate-in-dominican-republic/.
O’Neill, A. (2023b). Haiti – unemployment rate 1998-2018 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/808531/unemployment-rate-in-haiti/.
Sancak, C. and Jaramillo, L. (2007). Growth in the Dominican Republic and Haiti: Why has the Grass Been Greener on One Side of Hispaniola? [online] Available at: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/Growth-in-the-Dominican-Republic-and-Haiti-Why-has-the-Grass-Been-Greener-on-One-Side-of-20520 [Accessed 23 Oct. 2023].
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