  Economic interdependencies have become increasingly present in globalized
production, financial and trade systems. While establishing interdependencies
among economic agents is crucial for the production of complex products, they
may also increase systemic risks due to failure propagation. It is crucial to
identify how network connectivity impacts both the emergent production and risk
of collapse of economic systems. In this paper we propose a model to study the
effects of network structure on the behavior of economic systems by varying the
density and centralization of connections among agents. The complexity of
production increases with connectivity given the combinatorial explosion of
parts and products. Emergent systemic risks arise when interconnections
increase vulnerabilities. Our results suggest a universal description of
economic collapse given in the emergence of tipping points and phase
transitions in the relationship between network structure and risk of
individual failure. This relationship seems to follow a sigmoidal form in the
case of increasingly denser or centralized networks. The model sheds new light
on the relevance of policies for the growth of economic complexity, and
highlights the trade-off between increasing the potential production of the
system and its robustness to collapse. We discuss the policy implications of
intervening in the organization of interconnections and system features, and
stress how different network structures and node characteristics suggest
different directions in order to promote complex and robust economic systems.
