There are significant cross-national differences in government data openness.The research takes an economic complexity perspective to help explain this phenomenon.It theoretically explores the notion that data openness is more valuable to complex economies, and that a nation's economic complexity is thereby an incentive to “open up” and exploit government data. Empirical data from ninety-four countries is used to test the relationship between economic complexity and government data openness. The tests indicate a moderate to strong link
