Are Ideas Being Fished Out

23 Pages Posted: 14 Oct 2020 Last revised: 26 Jul 2021

See all articles by Leonardo Kluppel

Leonardo Kluppel

Ohio State University (OSU) - Fisher College of Business

Anne Marie Knott

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School

Date Written: July 23, 2021

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 observation that maximum research productivity across firms is increasing over time. 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: R&D productivity, research productivity, growth

JEL Classification: D24, E23, O31, O47

Suggested Citation

Kluppel, Leonardo and Knott, Anne Marie, Are Ideas Being Fished Out (July 23, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3681036 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3681036

Leonardo Kluppel

Ohio State University (OSU) - Fisher College of Business ( email )

2100 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210-1144
United States

Anne Marie Knott (Contact Author)

Washington University in St. Louis - John M. Olin Business School ( email )

One Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1156
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
155
Abstract Views
845
Rank
404,321
PlumX Metrics