10
J. Swart and L. Brinkmann
for Space Research, which monitors the deforestation of the Amazon via satellite.
PRODES has been publishing the annual deforestation rates (in square kilometers) of
the municipalities constituting the Amazônia Legal region since 1988, and has played
an important role as guidance for the Brazilian government in terms of environmental
policies. Our panel comprises 760 municipalities in the nine states constituting the
Amazon basin region and ranges from 2002 to 2014.
Forest Fires
We further examine the relationship between forest fires and economic complexity.
Yearly, vast forest areas are burnt in Brazil to obtain free space for agricultural
production and pasture (cf. Watts 2012; Mazzetti 2016). The Instituto Brasileiro
de Geografia e Estatística (hereafter IBGE), Brazil’s Institute of Geography and
Statistics, provides data on the annual number of forest fires (measured in number
of heat sources) for the 26 Brazilian states and the federal district between 2002 and
2009.
Air Pollution
Lastly, the IBGE provides data on various air pollutants for the Brazilian metropolitan regions of Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Grande Vitória, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio
de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo. The air pollution indicators, measured in micrograms per cubic meter, include the annually observed maximum and average concentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, total suspended particles (TSP), and
ultrafine particles (PM10). Data on maximum concentrations of carbon monoxide
and ozone is also available. Our panel covers the years 2002–2009.
Economic Complexity Indicator
Our main independent variable, ECI, denotes the Economic Complexity Index (hereafter ECI), an innovative index developed by Hausmann and Hidalgo (Hausmann
et al. 2014). The ECI captures the productive capacity of an economy by taking into
account the complexity of its products,
2 considering their diversity (i.e. the number
of products the economy exports) and ubiquity (i.e. the number of economies that
export a given product). Ultimately, this index quantifies the complexity of an economy in one single number, with more complex products being exported by a smaller
number of economies, as they require more sophisticated productive knowledge to
be produced (Hidalgo and Hausmann 2009; Hausmann et al. 2014). Following the
EKC concept, we also include the square term of the ECI, (ECI)
2 .
The visualisation tool DataViva expanded the index for the specific case of Brazil.
Using information compiled by the Brazilian Secretariat of Foreign Trade (SECEX)
and the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), DataViva
has gathered high-quality historical data on Brazilian international trade flows to
2 More precisely, the ECI is calculated as the average complexity of products exported by a specific
economy with international comparative advantage, weighted with the share of exports by the said
economy.
J. Swart and L. Brinkmann
for Space Research, which monitors the deforestation of the Amazon via satellite.
PRODES has been publishing the annual deforestation rates (in square kilometers) of
the municipalities constituting the Amazônia Legal region since 1988, and has played
an important role as guidance for the Brazilian government in terms of environmental
policies. Our panel comprises 760 municipalities in the nine states constituting the
Amazon basin region and ranges from 2002 to 2014.
Forest Fires
We further examine the relationship between forest fires and economic complexity.
Yearly, vast forest areas are burnt in Brazil to obtain free space for agricultural
production and pasture (cf. Watts 2012; Mazzetti 2016). The Instituto Brasileiro
de Geografia e Estatística (hereafter IBGE), Brazil’s Institute of Geography and
Statistics, provides data on the annual number of forest fires (measured in number
of heat sources) for the 26 Brazilian states and the federal district between 2002 and
2009.
Air Pollution
Lastly, the IBGE provides data on various air pollutants for the Brazilian metropolitan regions of Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Grande Vitória, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio
de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo. The air pollution indicators, measured in micrograms per cubic meter, include the annually observed maximum and average concentrations of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, total suspended particles (TSP), and
ultrafine particles (PM10). Data on maximum concentrations of carbon monoxide
and ozone is also available. Our panel covers the years 2002–2009.
Economic Complexity Indicator
Our main independent variable, ECI, denotes the Economic Complexity Index (hereafter ECI), an innovative index developed by Hausmann and Hidalgo (Hausmann
et al. 2014). The ECI captures the productive capacity of an economy by taking into
account the complexity of its products,
2 considering their diversity (i.e. the number
of products the economy exports) and ubiquity (i.e. the number of economies that
export a given product). Ultimately, this index quantifies the complexity of an economy in one single number, with more complex products being exported by a smaller
number of economies, as they require more sophisticated productive knowledge to
be produced (Hidalgo and Hausmann 2009; Hausmann et al. 2014). Following the
EKC concept, we also include the square term of the ECI, (ECI)
2 .
The visualisation tool DataViva expanded the index for the specific case of Brazil.
Using information compiled by the Brazilian Secretariat of Foreign Trade (SECEX)
and the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), DataViva
has gathered high-quality historical data on Brazilian international trade flows to
2 More precisely, the ECI is calculated as the average complexity of products exported by a specific
economy with international comparative advantage, weighted with the share of exports by the said
economy.