The economy and the environment in the Dominican Republic and Haiti: what explains the differences?

The Dominican Republic and Haiti share one island but display different economic and environmental paths. Policy decisions in the Dominican Republic aimed at protecting environmental resources help in explaining its better economic and environmental performance as compared to Haiti. The paper advances a model for explaining the differences as a result of environmental preferences and environmental saving efforts. The modelling derives sufficient conditions for better economic and environmental performance in the Dominican Republic in comparison with Haiti.