This paper assesses the Dominican Republic’s willingness to pay (WTP) for a conservation, restoration, and sustainable development program for the Bahoruco-Jaragua-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve (RBJBE). Created in 2002, the RBJBE covers approximately 4858 km2, of which approximately 900 km2 correspond to the sea surface. With three core conservation zones, the RBJBE constitutes a complex space with a history of conflicts rooted in exploiting natural resources and social and economic issues. At the same time, it is a biodiversity hotspot of global importance. We present a Contingent Valuation Method to estimate the WTP for a conservation and restoration program called PROBIOSFERA. The non-parametric and parametric estimates of the WTP are DOP 165.00 (≈USD 2.94) and DOP 181.88 (≈USD 3.25), respectively. The socioeconomic variables that positively affect the WTP are income level, educational level, and age. The ecosystem services that are statistically related to WTP are the provisioning and supporting services. Regardless of the monetary valuation scenarios defined, the estimated annual monetized aggregated welfare associated with the RBJBE for Dominican society is DOP 7.2 billion (≈USD 128.1 million).

No abstract

Cities are territories vulnerable to climate change. An alternative to increase resilience and mitigate the effects of the climate context is urban forest planning to increase ecosystem services. This research constructed a forest cover sustainability index, based on 147 semi-structured interviews with residents of four residential areas of the city of Santo Domingo (Gazcue, Zona Colonial, Ciudad Nueva, and San Carlos), in which information was collected based on both benefit perception and tree management in their home and nearby public areas. The socioeconomic characteristics of the population and the information gathered from the measurements of the urban forest in both public and private areas of the city during the 2016–2019 period were considered, including these four residential areas, which established the ecosystem services provided by the urban forest. The results showed that Gazcue had a higher value in the forest cover sustainability index. The factors that influenced this result were: job stability, medium-high income, and property ownership. Likewise, the added value of the territory, whether in terms of tourism or the socioeconomic value of the population that inhabits it, is closely related to a greater attention to urban planning, prioritizing the conservation and landscape harmony that the arboreal component can provide. In conclusion, urban forest planning in cities should consider tree species, the design and structure of spatial arrangements, and a competent legal framework that can meet the challenges of territorial sustainability and contribute to the resilience and mitigation of climate change impacts.

From an empirical-based perspective, this paper explores the influence of intellectual capital factors on the performance of firms in the Dominican Republic. A Likert scale from one to seven was used to capture firms’ sensitivity to human, structural and relational capital factors. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out using the method of principal components with VARIMAX rotation. The final factorial scores were standardized to execute the regression analysis. Structural capital factors appear to be the dominant intellectual capital components within the Dominican context. Human capital factors play a vital role in performance in manufacturing and in-services firms, and relational capital factors are significant in determining their performance. This research contributes to the regional literature on intellectual capital studies in Latin America and the Caribbean. It puts forward some specific points related to the role of intellectual capital factors in explaining firms’ performance in small open economies such as that of the Dominican Republic.

This article examines the influence of different economic rationales in the Dominican Republic’s science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies from a context-development perspective. For this purpose, four STI policy frameworks are reviewed: the National Competitiveness Plan; the Strategic Plan of Science, Technology, and Innovation; the Ten-year Plan of Higher Education; and the National Development Strategy 2030. Three cycles of STI policies are covered: the industrialization and import substitution cycle; the structural adjustment cycle; and the post-structural adjustment cycle. Five economic rationales are considered: neoclassical, Schumpeterian growth, neo-Marshallian, systemic–institutional, and evolutionary thought. Based on the results, three rationales prevail a systemic–institutional approach; a neo-Marshallian perspective; and a Schumpeterian growth approach. These rationales may refer to the country’s challenges to spur its potential for economic growth and development.

No abstract

In this paper is analyzed the structure of preference of incentives to innovation of Dominican manufacturing and services firms. The analysis of preference was carried out using a Conjoint Analysis. In total 326 firms were surveyed across the country. According to the main findings, Dominican firms prefer combinations of incentives to minimize tax liabilities but also to reduce uncertainty related to innovation activities. In terms of preference, no statistically significant differences between manufacturing and service firms were found.

This article aims to briefly review the socio-economic impact caused by the flooding of Lake Enriquillo on the inhabitants of Boca Cachón due to the complex local phenomenon related to climate variability. Between 2003 and 2014, Boca de Cachón and the communities surrounding Lake Enriquillo were deeply affected by flooding of the Lake’s rising waters. Lake Enriquillo is the largest wetland in the Caribbean and the first designated RAMSAR site. In turn, Boca de Cachón could be considered the first human settlement formally displaced because of climate variability in the Dominican Republic and probably one of the first in the Americas in the twenty-first century. Boca de Cachón is a rural Municipal District located to the northwest of the municipality of Jimaní, with a population of around 3000 inhabitants on the southwest border with the Republic of Haiti and located in the Biosphere Reserve Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo. Given the future climatic scenarios for the Dominican Republic and the possible climate change that could exacerbate by excess or, by default, the socio-environmental problems in the Lake’s belt, it is necessary to support the communities in their capacity-building processes. The lessons learned from Boca de Cachón can serve as a learning space for adaptation processes in rural environments in the Caribbean region.