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Are ideas being fished out?

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  • Klüppel, Leonardo
  • Knott, Anne Marie

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Klüppel, Leonardo & Knott, Anne Marie, 2023. "Are ideas being fished out?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:52:y:2023:i:2:s004873332200186x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104665
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Naudé, Wim, 2024. "Is the Scholarly Field of Entrepreneurship at Its End?," IZA Discussion Papers 16916, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Yang Haodong & Liu Jialin & Wang Gaofeng, 2025. "Knowledge Innovation Effect of University Computing Power in China: Evidence from the top500 Supercomputers," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 66(1), pages 1-30, February.
    3. Almeida, Derick & Naudé, Wim & Sequeira, Tiago Neves, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence and the Discovery of New Ideas: Is an Economic Growth Explosion Imminent?," IZA Discussion Papers 16766, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Li, Chen & Liu, Zhao & Song, Rong & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2024. "The impact of green credit guidelines on environmental performance: Firm-level evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Endogenous growth; Research productivity; Fishing out;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

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