Economic complexity and regional development: critical essays

Bandeira Morais, Margarida (2023) Economic complexity and regional development: critical essays. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

Economic complexity indicators, which aim to infer the knowledge and capabilities within countries and regions, have become increasingly prominent in the economic geography literature, as well as on policy recommendations across several different geographical and socioeconomic contexts. Such applications often lack a critical understanding of what economic complexity encompasses and its applicability to different contexts. It is therefore crucial to understand what economic complexity captures, and where and when it should be applied, as well as to have a more grounded understanding of its conceptual shortcomings. This thesis contributes towards closing this gap in the literature and provides a critical evaluation of the economic complexity concept and measure for regional economic development. Structured along four chapters, the thesis provides, firstly, a critical survey of the economic complexity literature and explores the export-based complexity index at the country-level – this is the basis for the next chapters, which address key empirical issues. Moving to the sub-national level and using employment data, the second chapter explores occupation complexity across Portuguese municipalities – here, we analyse the applicability of the economic complexity index to occupation and industry data and explore the policy lessons and implications for regional growth and development. The third chapter focuses on export-based economic complexity and natural resource dependence, where we investigate what the index captures in countries with a very high dependence on oil and whether it is associated with economic growth, with a focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Lastly, the fourth chapter provides an exploratory empirical analysis, with a focus on the links between economic complexity, education and economic growth across countries, followed by a concluding reflection on the thesis findings. Overall, this thesis provides evidence that economic complexity indicators capture distinctive aspects across different geographical levels and types of data, unlike what some of the existing literature implies. Our findings call for more caution in empirical work, particularly for policy-making purposes – the definition of economic complexity across applications to different types of data and to unique socioeconomic contexts should be carefully considered, and any economic development policy based on this top-down indicator crucially requires consideration of local conditions.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2023 Margarida Bandeira Morais
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Sets:	Departments > Geography and Environment
Supervisor:	Iammarino, Simona and Lee, Neil
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4567

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