Does too much work hamper innovation? Evidence for diminishing returns of work hours for patent grants

Mehmet Celbis and Serdar Türkeli

No 2014-053, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: This study suggests that individual time is an important factor that needs to be considered in innovation research. We define two types of time work time and free time. We find that work time has a positive but diminishing effect on innovative output such that after a certain point the innovation-enhancing role of work time is taken over by individual free time. Using a sample of OECD countries and Russia, we estimate a quadratic relationship between work time and per capita innovative output. For a hypothetical economy that has no other holidays but weekends, we estimate that individuals should not work more than about 6.6 hours a day for maximizing innovative output. We also present a categorization of countries based on their innovative output and work hours that may kindle interest for certain case-specific future research.

Keywords: Labour economics; Labour policy; Innovation; Time allocation; Returns on R&D; OECD; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J08 J22 O30 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-06-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-pr~
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Does Too Much Work Hamper Innovation? Evidence for Diminishing Returns of Work Hours for Patent Grants (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:unumer:2014053

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