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Exploring the Link Between Economic Complexity and Emergent Economic Activities

Author

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  • Alex Bishop
  • Juan Mateos-Garcia

Abstract

Recent studies have shown a strong link between the complexity of economies and their economic development. There remain gaps in our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning these links, in part because they are difficult to analyse with highly aggregated, official data sources that do not capture the emergence of new industrial activities, a potential benefit from complexity. We seek to address some of these gaps by calculating two indices of economic complexity for functional local economies (Travel to Work Areas) in Great Britain, and explore their link with these locations’ economic performance. Seeking to gain a better understanding of the mechanism connecting economic complexity with economic performance, we create a measure of emergent technological activity in a location based on a combination of novel data sources including text from UK business websites and CrunchBase, a technology company directory, and study its link with economic complexity. Our results highlight the potential value of novel, unstructured data sources for the analysis of the links between economic complexity and regional economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • Alex Bishop & Juan Mateos-Garcia, 2019. "Exploring the Link Between Economic Complexity and Emergent Economic Activities," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 249(1), pages 47-58, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:niesru:v:249:y:2019:i:1:p:r47-r58
    DOI: 10.1177/002795011924900114
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    complexity; economic geography; big data; emergent technologies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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