Why we like the ECI+ algorithm

Abstract

Recently a measure for Economic Complexity named ECI+ has been proposed by Albeaik et al. We like the ECI+ algorithm because it is mathematically identical to the Fitness algorithm, the measure for Economic Complexity we introduced in 2012. We demonstrate that the mathematical structure of ECI+ is strictly equivalent to that of Fitness (up to normalization and rescaling). We then show how the claims of Albeaik et al. about the ability of Fitness to describe the Economic Complexity of a country are incorrect. Finally, we hypothesize how the wrong results reported by these authors could have been obtained by not iterating the algorithm.