The Atlas of Economic Complexity - Mapping Paths to Prosperity, 2014 revised version

Authors:
Ricardo Hausmann
César A. Hidalgo
Sebastián Bustos
Michele Coscia
Sarah Chung
Juan Jimenez
Alexander Simoes
Muhammed A. Yildirim

Introduction: Why do some countries grow and others do not? The authors of The Atlas of Economic Complexity offer readers an explanation based on "Economic Complexity," a measure of a society's productive knowledge. Prosperous societies are those that have the knowledge to make a larger variety of more complex products. The Atlas of Economic Complexity attempts to measure the amount of productive knowledge countries hold and how they can move to accumulate more of it by making more complex products.

Through the graphical representation of the "Product Space," the authors are able to identify each country's "adjacent possible," or potential new products, making it easier to find paths to economic diversification and growth. In addition, they argue that a country's economic complexity and its position in the product space are better predictors of economic growth than many other well-known development indicators, including measures of competitiveness, governance, finance, and schooling.

Using innovative visualizations, the book locates each country in the product space, provides complexity and growth potential rankings for 128 countries, and offers individual country pages with detailed information about a country's current capabilities and its diversification options. The maps and visualizations included in the Atlas can be used to find more viable paths to greater productive knowledge and prosperity.

     "Emphasizing that not all products are the same for development is a significant departure from the establishment."

    —Changyong Rhee, Chief Economist
    Asian Development Bank (Cambridge, MA 2011)

    "The ECI can play a very important role. It can help identify the role of developing countries."

    —Justin Lin, Chief Economist
    World Bank (Cambridge, MA 2011)