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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2026–07–20
seven papers chosen by Laura Nicola-Gavrila, Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Ma, Debin; Rubin, Jared; Weiwen, Yin |
| Abstract: | This paper revisits the old thesis of the contrasting paths of modernization between Japan and China. It develops a new analytical framework regarding the role of knowledge acquisition (propositional vs. prescriptive) and political centralization as the key drivers behind these contrasting paths. Our model and historical data highlight how the introduction of these elements contributed to Meiji Japan’s decisive turn towards the West and Qing China’s lethargic response to Western imperialism. Our analytical framework, developed from a comparative historical narrative and quantitative data, sheds new insights onto the importance of knowledge acquisition for enabling developing countries to reach the world’s economic frontier. |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21273 |
| By: | Sergio Petralia; Ron Boschma |
| Abstract: | The patent system rests on a fundamental bargain: temporary monopoly rights in exchange for the disclosure of technical knowledge. Yet, the complexity of transferring technical know-how often limits the effectiveness of disclosure, keeping innovation highly localized. We study whether actionable disclosure in the form of publicly available executable code can overcome these frictions. We rely on a novel dataset linking two decades of patenting activity in the United States to contributions in public code repositories by 1, 556 organizations. Using neural language models, we measure the semantic similarity between patent descriptions and public code contributions by these firms to identify patents with high digital disclosure. We find that these patents attract citations from inventors located approximately 17% farther away than those citing a group of control patents, suggesting that actionable disclosure in the form of executable code reduces spatial barriers to knowledge diffusion. |
| Keywords: | patent disclosure, knowledge diffusion, open-source software, geography of innovation, spatial spillovers |
| JEL: | O31 O33 O34 R12 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2611 |
| By: | Dwenger, Nadja; Gumpert, Anna |
| Abstract: | An effective public administration is essential for state capacity and economic prosperity. We provide the first causal evidence on the short and long-term impact of secondments, a key instrument for building administrative capacity. Our context is the large-scale capacity building in the East German tax administration after reunification, which was designed and implemented in a highly decentralized way. We exploit this unique institutional feature for identification, drawing on a major, novel data collection. Secondments significantly increased short-term output quantity with returns on investment of 1.5--3.1 and had persistent positive effects on long-term output quality. Effect heterogeneity suggests successful transfer of tacit knowledge as the main mechanism behind successful capacity building. Exploiting the richness of our data, we uncover three key design features of effective capacity building: support from offices with strong administrative traditions, intermediate secondment durations, and both task-specific and broad measures. |
| Keywords: | Administrative capacity; Capacity-building; Knowledge transfer; German reunification |
| JEL: | D73 H83 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20952 |
| By: | Wu, Jie; Canales, J. Ignacio; Zhou, Peng (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK); Yan, Haifeng |
| Abstract: | This study examines how soft skills education performatively shapes business realities across cultural boundaries. While prior research has treated soft skills as static capabilities, we demonstrate their role as performative forces actively reshaping organizational practices. Through in-depth interviews with Chinese graduates of UK universities working in China, our findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between structural performativity and organizational transformation, moderated by collective orientation (weakening effect) and absorptive capacity (strengthening effect) and pinpoint six key domains through which soft skills education acts as a performative mechanism. Our findings suggest that successful organizational transformation through soft skills education requires balancing international connections, cultural values, and knowledge integration capabilities. The study advances performativity theory in management education by demonstrating how educational practices actively construct organizational realities rather than merely describing them and provides insights for business schools on effectively harnessing performativity to create desirable organizational outcomes in cross-cultural contexts. |
| Keywords: | Performativity; Management Education; Soft Skills; Cross-Cultural Learning; Chinese Business; Business Schools |
| JEL: | A2 I2 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2026/1 |
| By: | Guccione, Andrea; Roldan-Blanco, Pau |
| Abstract: | Firms’ innovation outcomes depend on their ability to attract and retain talented inventors. What market frictions prevent the sorting between firms with high innovation potential and high-productivity inventors? How does this sorting impact aggregate innovation, growth and welfare? We address these questions both empirically and theoretically. Empirically, we show that firms facing strong competition in the product market employ more productive inventors, while less productive inventors tend to be allocated in concentrated industries. Theoretically, we embed a frictional labor market for inventors into an endogenous-growth model of strategic innovation. In line with the data, the model predicts that high-productivity inventors are disproportionately employed in firms that operate in competitive industries. We then use the model to quantify the growth and welfare implications of this inventor sorting. Our results show that matching frictions in the market for inventors impede the allocation of highproductivity inventors to firms with high implementation intensity, and are responsible for a 32% loss in economic growth. Industrial policies that subsidize R&D spending relax these frictions by boosting inventor productivity, helping high-quality inventors reallocate to firms with high implementation incentives. Under optimal subsidies, growth increases as much as 74 basis points, closing most of the gap in missing growth caused by frictions in the market for inventors. |
| Keywords: | Inventors; Innovation; Growth; Misallocation; Search |
| JEL: | L16 J6 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21186 |
| By: | Ide, Enrique |
| Abstract: | Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have sparked expectations of unprecedented economic growth. Yet, by enabling senior workers to accomplish more tasks independently, AI may reduce entry-level opportunities, raising concerns about how future generations will acquire expertise. This paper develops a model to examine how automation and AI affect the intergenerational transmission of tacit knowledge — practical, hard-to-codify skills critical to workplace success. I show that the competitive equilibrium features socially excessive automation of early-career tasks, and that improvements in such automation generate an intergenerational trade-off: they raise short-run productivity but weaken the skills of future generations, slowing long-run growth — sometimes enough to reduce welfare. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that AI-driven entry-level automation could reduce the long-run annual growth rate of U.S. per-capita output by 0.05 to 0.35 percentage points, depending on its scale. I further show that AI co-pilots can partially offset lost learning by assisting individuals who fail to acquire skills early in their careers. However, they may also weaken juniors’ incentives to develop such skills. These findings highlight the importance of preserving and expanding early-career learning opportunities to fully realize AI’s potential. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence; Automation; Long-run economic growth; Tacit knowledge |
| JEL: | O40 O33 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20940 |
| By: | Ide, Enrique; Talamas, Eduard |
| Abstract: | Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping offshoring and globalization by automating knowledge work and altering trade patterns. We analyze this transformation in a two-region world where firms structure work hierarchically to use knowledge efficiently: the most knowledgeable individuals specialize in problem-solving, while others perform routine work. Before AI, the Advanced Economy specializes in problem-solving services, while the Emerging Economy focuses on routine knowledge work. We model AI as a technology that converts compute into autonomous “AI agents, †which serve as perfect substitutes for humans with a given level of knowledge. Reflecting the concentration of AI infrastructure in advanced economies, we assume that all compute is located in the Advanced Economy. We show that basic AI reduces the Advanced Economy’s net exports of problem-solving services, potentially reversing pre-AI trade patterns. In contrast, sophisticated AI increases the Advanced Economy’s net exports of problem-solving services, reinforcing existing trade patterns. We also examine the effects of restricting AI autonomy, finding that a global restriction redistributes AI’s benefits toward lower-skilled workers, while a regional restriction—such as banning autonomous AI in the Emerging Economy—does little to benefit lower-skilled workers and harms the most knowledgeable individuals in that region. Our results underscore the need for a coordinated global approach to AI regulation. |
| Keywords: | Artificial intelligence; Offshoring; International trade |
| JEL: | F16 F66 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20801 |