Complexo econômico e complexidade econômica: originalidade e atualidade em Wilson Cano

Abstract

This article analyzes Wilson Cano’s theoretical and methodological contribution regarding the concept of the economic complex to interpret Brazil’s economic development and its results or differentiated impacts on the territory. The coffee economy created and induced by the coffee plantation in the São Paulo Plateau, and its capacity for diversification and sectorial interrelationship constitutes the basis for the interpretation of the process of industrial growth and concentration in São Paulo. By contrast, the author analyzes the main historical events, namely: sugar production in the Brazilian northeast; rubber extraction in the Amazon region; dispersed agriculture in the three southern states; coffee plantations driven by slave labor in the Paraíba Valley and eastern Minas Gerais; and gold extraction in the 18th century, in order to demonstrate that these regions did not have the necessary conditions to induce a virtuous process of industrialization with the creation of a diverse and complex economic structure. Finally, we present a counterpoint between the theoretical formulation proposed by Cano (1977) and the recent methodology of economic complexity proposed by Hausmann and Hidalgo (2011), to demonstrate the originality and richness of Cano’s (1977) contribution. Despite missing data and the fact that computer systems were not yet available, Cano’s analysis is still current when one considers the challenges related to development processes, particularly in large, diverse countries, considering the international, institutional, social, and political. dimensions.