Are ideas being fished out?

Leonardo Klüppel and Anne Marie Knott

Research Policy, 2023, vol. 52, issue 2

Abstract: This paper examines whether declining research productivity can be explained by fishing out—is the production of new knowledge decreasing in the level of existing knowledge? We estimate the knowledge production function for US firms and find instead that knowledge production is increasing in the knowledge stock. This is reinforced by the observations that maximum research productivity across firms is increasing over time, and that research productivity year effects continue to exhibit decline after modeling contributions from knowledge and research labor. Given that fishing out appears unable to explain the decline in research productivity, we offer preliminary evidence of contingent factors that might contribute to the decline.

Keywords: Endogenous growth; Research productivity; Fishing out (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 E23 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:52:y:2023:i:2:s004873332200186x

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104665

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