  Advanced economies exhibit a high degree of sophistication in the creation of
various products. While critical to such sophistication, the nature and
underlying structure of the interactions taking place inside production
processes remain opaque when studying large systems such as industries or
entire economies. Using partial information decomposition, we quantify the
nature of these interactions, allowing us to infer how much innovation stems
form specific input interactions and how they are structured. These estimates
yield a novel picture of the nuanced interactions underpinning technological
sophistication. By analyzing networks of synergistic interactions, we find that
more sophisticated industries tend to exhibit highly modular small-world
topologies; with the tertiary sector as its central connective core. Countries
and industries that have a well-established connective core and specialized
modules exhibit higher economic complexity and output efficiency. Similar
modular networks have been found to be responsible for maintaining a balance
between integration and segregation of information in the human brain,
suggesting a universal principle underlying the organization of sophisticated
production processes.
