Economic Complexity and Human Development: DEA performance measurement in Asia and Latin America

Economic growth is not the unique factor to explain human development. Due to that many authors have prioritized studies to measure the Human Development Index. However, these indices do not analyze how Economic Complexity can increase Human Development. The aim of this paper is to determine the efficiency of a set of nations from Latin America and Asia, to measure a country’s performance in converting Economic Complexity into Human Development, between 2010 and 2014. The method used was Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), through the Variable Returns of Scale (VRS) Model and Window Analysis. Results showed in 2014, all Asian countries were efficient except China and the Philippines, and Cuba was the benchmark for inefficient countries. Window Analysis showed Japan, Republic of Korea and Singapore were efficient over time. This result confirms the initial hypothesis of this article: the more complex countries are more efficient in generating Human Development.