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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2026–03–23
five papers chosen by Laura Nicola-Gavrila, Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Bartelsman, Eric (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Dobbelaere, Sabien (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Zona Mattioli, Alessandro (Universiteit van Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a micro-founded framework linking price-cost and wage markups to intangible assets. Intangible assets, once created, are a source of firm rents. Owing to limits to enforceable ownership and the non-rival nature of knowledge, these rents can be both retained by the origin firm and transferred to a competitor through poaching of workers. Search and matching frictions affect labor mobility and result in bargaining over rents between the firm and the worker. This environment generates hold-up in intangible asset creation and motivates rent sharing. Under non-compete agreements, poached workers face start delays that weaken outside options. Using microdata from the Netherlands, we document higher price-cost and wage markups in more intangible-intensive firms and lower wages for workers with non-compete agreements, consistent with the model. |
| Keywords: | price-cost markups, wage markups, rent sharing, intangibles, non-compete agreements |
| JEL: | J41 L10 O30 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18440 |
| By: | Carlotta Nani; Martin Alejandro Correa; Julio Raffo |
| Abstract: | This paper examines gender disparities in intellectual property (IP) awareness and participation, using the 2023 and 2025 waves of the WIPO Pulse Survey conducted among 58, 135 individuals across seventy-four countries. Our findings reveal that copyrights are the most recognized IP forms globally, while patents, trademarks and geographical indications remain the least familiar. At the individual level, women demonstrate lower knowledge of patents and trademarks, but greater knowledge of designs and copyrights compared to men, with these differences persisting after controlling for socioeconomic factors. These patterns are consistent with gendered specialization in education, professional and household spheres where women tend to cluster in creative industries while men dominate entrepreneurship and technical sectors. Notably, we observe a cohort effect: while we identify significant differences in knowledge between men and women for older cohorts, these disappear among younger cohorts. We do not observe comparable changes by level of education or occupation of respondents. Moreover, women exhibit more positive attitudes towards IP-protected products across categories. These findings highlight the need for targeted awareness campaigns and reveal that gendered patterns of IP knowledge may contribute to innovation gender gaps through educational pathways and professional specialization. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual property, Gender equality, Gender disparities, Surveys |
| JEL: | O34 O31 J16 C83 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:100 |
| By: | Quintos, Paul L. |
| Abstract: | The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines accounts for 40% of the global customer experience workforce where jobs are now rapidly being transformed by the integration of generative AI (GenAI) tools. Therefore, the Philippine BPO sector offers a strategic window into how GenAI is not only reorganising tasks but also redistributing value and power in workplaces that are linked to global value chains. Based on qualitative interviews with knowledge workers in Philippine-based BPO firms, this article shows how workers’ tacit knowledge is systematically captured and codified in AI systems, how cognitive work becomes reorganized around algorithmic rules, how AI-augmented labour is commodified, and how collective forms of intelligence are enclosed within proprietary systems in ways that reinforce existing global hierarchies and inequality. The central thesis of this article is that these interrelated processes constitute a new modality of capital accumulation through cognitive dispossession on a world scale. |
| Date: | 2026–03–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:6g3aj_v1 |
| By: | Ajay K. Agrawal; John McHale; Alexander Oettl |
| Abstract: | We explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the knowledge production function. We characterize AI as a tool, not for full automation but rather for augmentation through enhanced search over combinatorial spaces. This leads to increased scientific productivity. We decompose knowledge production into a multi-stage process to shed light on the "jagged frontier" of AI in science, revealing differential returns to different tools across domains (e.g., data-rich biology vs. anomaly-sparse physics) and workflow stages (e.g., strong design aids like AlphaFold vs. subtler question generation tools). We treat human judgment as indispensable for tasks involving abductive inference, contextual nuance, and trade-offs, particularly in data-sparse environments. Drawing on a task-based model that distinguishes "ordinary" from AI-expert scientists, we describe how exogenous improvements in AI yield nonlinear productivity gains amplified by the share of scientists that are AI-experts to underscore the role of AI complements like skills training and organizational design. |
| JEL: | I23 O14 O31 O33 O41 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34953 |
| By: | Abdulkadri, Abdullahi; Leon, Daniel; Jones, Francis; Skerrette, Nyasha; Gonzales, Candice |
| Abstract: | Labour productivity has been on a declining trend in the Caribbean. An examination of this trend revealed a growing concern of skills mismatch in the labour market. At the same time, youth unemployment is high in many countries, with young women and girls twice as likely not to be in education, employment or training. These are troubling signs for human capital formation at a time when Caribbean economies are experiencing low growth, the global economy is becoming increasingly knowledge-based, and a new tariff regime is threatening global trade. In this study, we identify falling quality of education and the inadequate preparedness of school leavers and graduates for the world of work as notable challenges to human capital formation in the Caribbean. We also identify a role for productive development policies to drive transformation by creating an enabling environment for the key drivers of human capital formation in the Caribbean —population dynamics, education, and employment— to shape the workforce, enhance labour productivity and create a path to sustainable development. However, this will not be achieved unless the subregion addresses the gender disparities in education and employment, the debilitating effect of non-communicable diseases, and the looming social protection burden of ageing from the demographic transition. Amidst these challenges, investment in information and telecommunication technologies offers the Caribbean a path to develop and earn dividends from its human capital. |
| Date: | 2026–03–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col033:85994 |