A closer look
Forget standard GDP projections; the real secret to predicting a nation's future wealth is mapping out exactly how complicated its exports are. Economic complexity mapping strips away the noise by analyzing the 'knowledge intensity' of a country. A nation exporting unrefined oil might be rich today, but it lacks complex know-how. Meanwhile, decades ago, models flagged South Korea as a massively undervalued economy because they were rapidly shifting from textiles to highly complex electronics and semiconductors. The math proved that building a microchip requires vastly more interconnected societal knowledge than pumping a barrel of crude.
