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Cited by 1,058Economic Growth and ProductivityEconomic and Technological InnovationFirm Innovation and Growth

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 34 of the 36 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Burden of Knowledge and the “Death of the Renaissance Man”: Is Innovation Getting Harder?

JONES, BENJAMIN F.·2009·Review of Economic Studies
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-937x.2008.00531.x
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Abstract

This paper investigates a possibly fundamental aspect of technological progress. If knowledge accumulates as technology advances, then successive generations of innovators may face an increasing educational burden. Innovators can compensate through lengthening educational phases and narrowing expertise, but these responses come at the cost of reducing individual innovative capacities, with implications for the organization of innovative activity—a greater reliance on teamwork—and negative implications for growth. Building on this “burden of knowledge” mechanism, this paper first presents six facts about innovator behaviour. I show that age at first invention, specialization, and teamwork increase over time in a large micro-data set of inventors. Furthermore, in cross-section, specialization and teamwork appear greater in deeper areas of knowledge, while, surprisingly, age at first invention shows little variation across fields. A model then demonstrates how these facts can emerge in tandem. The theory further develops explicit implications for economic growth, providing an explanation for why productivity growth rates did not accelerate through the 20th century despite an enormous expansion in collective research effort. Upward trends in academic collaboration and lengthening doctorates, which have been noted in other research, can also be explained in this framework. The knowledge burden mechanism suggests that the nature of innovation is changing, with negative implications…

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Crossref · 10.1111/j.1467-937x.2008.00531.x

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Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. BARRO, 1995, Economic Growth
  2. EVENSON, 1991, Technology and Productivity: The Challenge for Economic Policy, 233
  3. KORTUM, 1993, “Equilibrium R&D and the Decline in the Patent-R&D Ratio: U.S. Evidence”, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 83, 450
  4. KUHN, 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
  5. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, 1990, On Time to the Doctorate: A Study of the Lengthening Time to Completion for Doctorates in Science and Engineering
  6. TILGHMAN, 1998, Trends in the Early Careers of Life Sciences
  7. ZUCKERMAN, 1973, The Sociology of Science, 497

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Metadata

Authors
JONES, B. F.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author
JONES, BENJAMIN F.
ORCID
JONES, BENJAMIN F.
Venue
Review of Economic Studies
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2009-01
Volume
76
Issue
1
Pages
283-317
ISSN
  • 0034-6527 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-937X
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-937x.2008.00531.x
OpenAlex
W3124253902
Cited by
1,058
References
36
Citations by year
2026: 107 · 2025: 103 · 2024: 113 · 2023: 86 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 76 · 2020: 60 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 62 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 45 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 37
FWCI
42.38
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • The Review of Economic Studies (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic and Technological Innovation
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Firm Innovation and Growth
Keywords
technological progress, innovators, specialization, teamwork, educational burden, economic growth, productivity growth, research collaboration

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