Basic Complexity Indicators and Upgrading – ADB – ADBI Innovation and Structural Transformation Database

The database provides basic data on product complexity of an economy’s exports, as well as so-called
upgradeThe process in which (firms within) an economy seize opportunities to capture more value from the products or services that they produce, e.g., by becoming competitive in new products with higher complexity.
diagrams.
In the upgrade diagrams, the horizontal axis represents the potential increase in complexity that an economy can obtain by developing comparative advantage in products of the indicated sectors. Higher numbers indicate higher complexity.
The vertical axis shows the probability upgrade bonus. This is a measure for how likely comparative advantages in products of the indicated sector can be developed based on the existing comparative advantages of the economy. Higher numbers indicate higher probability.
The size of the dots indicates the fraction of products in the sector in which the economy already has comparative advantage.
The ideal upgrade opportunity would thus be a small dot (i.e., many products still to develop) in the upper right corner of the diagram (i.e., high potential and high upgrade probability). However, this is not what is often found. Instead, we tend to find dots in the upper left corner (i.e., high upgrade probability and low complexity increase) or lower-right corner (i.e., high complexity increase and low upgrade probability).