The Impact of Economic Complexity on Economic Growth in N-11 Countries: A Panel ARDL Approach Study

Economic complexity is a relatively new concept developed in recent years to assess the productive characteristics of countries. It not only explains the production structure, but also helps examine differences in income and growth across countries. In this paper, we estimate the macroeconomic impact of economic complexity on growth of a sample of N-11 countries for the period 2000-2020, using the economic complexity index developed by Hidalgo and Hausman (2009). Diagnostic tests confirmed the assumption of slope coefficient heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence of the error term. Thus, we employ the Pesaran (2006) Common Correlated Effects Mean Group estimator (CCEMG) and the Chudik and Pesaran (2015) Common Correlated Effect Pooled Mean Group (CCEPMG) methodology. The findings suggest that economic complexity is one of the key determinants of long-term economic growth. However, its impact on economic growth is not significant in the short term, suggesting that the impact of changes in production structure on economic growth is time-sensitive. The coefficients of other control variables such as human capital, investment, institutional quality, and inflation rate were statistically significant.