Optimizing Economic Complexity
Existing correlation–complexity mapping approaches for identifying economic diversification lack theoretical optimality guarantees and empirical validation. Method: This paper formalizes diversification as an optimization problem subject to specialization constraints and proposes a novel Economic Complexity Optimization (ECO) algorithm that minimizes a cost function integrating the Economic Complexity Index (ECI), the Product Space network, and gradient-driven neighborhood search. Contribution: The approach overcomes the empirically grounded but theoretically ad hoc limitations of graph-based methods, shifting the paradigm from descriptive analysis to normative, actionable strategy generation. The resulting diversification pathways exhibit superior theoretical coherence and empirical interpretability compared to conventional recommendations. By bridging theory and practice, this work advances economic complexity methodologies toward operational, policy-ready tools. (149 words)