The policy implications of economic complexity

Cesar Hidalgo

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: In recent years economic complexity has grown into an active field of fundamental and applied research. Yet, despite important advances, the policy implications of economic complexity can remain unclear or misunderstood. Here I organize the policy implications of economic complexity in a framework grounded on 4 Ws: what approaches, focused on identifying target activities and/or locations; when approaches, focused on the timing of related and unrelated diversification; where approaches, focused on the geographic diffusion of knowledge; and who approaches, focused on the role played by agents of structural change. The goal of this paper is to provide a framework that groups, organizes, and clarifies the policy implications of economic complexity and facilitates its continued use in regional and international development.

Keywords: Economic complexity; Industrial policy; Relatedness; Smart specialization; Networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Research Policy, 2023, 52 (9), pp.104863. ⟨10.1016/j.respol.2023.104863⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: The policy implications of economic complexity (2023)
Working Paper: The Policy Implications of Economic Complexity (2022)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04361080

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104863

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().