Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?

Nicholas Bloom, Charles Jones, John van Reenen and Michael Webb

American Economic Review, 2020, vol. 110, issue 4, 1104-44

Abstract: Long-run growth in many models is the product of two terms: the effective number of researchers and their research productivity. We present evidence from various industries, products, and firms showing that research effort is rising substantially while research productivity is declining sharply. A good example is Moore's Law. The number of researchers required today to achieve the famous doubling of computer chip density is more than 18 times larger than the number required in the early 1970s. More generally, everywhere we look we find that ideas, and the exponential growth they imply, are getting harder to find.

JEL-codes: D24 E23 O31 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (306)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Are ideas getting harder to find? (2020)
Working Paper: Are ideas getting harder to find? (2017)
Working Paper: Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find? (2017)
Working Paper: Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find? (2017)
Working Paper: Are ideas getting harder to find? (2017)
Working Paper: Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find? (2017)
Working Paper: Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find? (2017)
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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20180338

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