2007/07/26 by C. A. Hidalgo, César A. Hidalgo, Bailey Klinger +5 · 7 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Economic Development and Digital Transformation #Economic and Technological Innovation #Global Trade and Competitiveness #physics.data-an #q-fin.GN
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.1144581
published as Science 317, 482 (2007) · This version is slightly different from the one published in Science
openalex publication_date 2007/07/26 · arxiv created 2007/08/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Economies grow by upgrading the products they produce and export. The technology, capital, institutions, and skills needed to make newer products are more easily adapted from some products than from others. Here, we study this network of relatedness between products, or "product space," finding that more-sophisticated products are located in a densely connected core whereas less-sophisticated products occupy a less-connected periphery. Empirically, countries move through the product space by developing goods close to those they currently produce. Most countries can reach the core only by traversing empirically infrequent distances, which may help explain why poor countries have trouble developing more competitive exports and fail to converge to the income levels of rich countries.