Data and Code for: Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Nicholas Bloom, Stanford University; Charles I. Jones, Stanford University; John Van Reenen, MIT; Michael Webb, Stanford University

Version: View help for Version V2

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Aggregate			10/21/2019 05:32:PM
Census			10/21/2019 05:32:PM
ChadMatlab			10/21/2019 05:34:PM
Compustat			10/21/2019 05:36:PM
MooresLaw			10/21/2019 05:36:PM
Mortality			10/21/2019 05:36:PM
Patents			10/21/2019 05:37:PM
Pharma			10/21/2019 05:37:PM
Seeds			10/21/2019 05:37:PM
WageSci			10/21/2019 05:37:PM

Project Citation:

Bloom, Nicholas, Jones, Charles I., Van Reenen, John, and Webb, Michael. Data and Code for: Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find? Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2020. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-03-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/E111743V2

Project Description

Summary: 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.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Economic growth; productivity; R&D

JEL Classification:
O30 Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights: General
O40 Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General

Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V2 [2020-03-30]

V1 [2019-09-09]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.