Is there a slowdown in research productivity? Evidence from China and Germany

This essay provides evidence for a decrease in research productivity in the last decades for the People’s Republic of China (hereafter “China”) and Germany. Estimates imply that research productivity falls, on average, by 5.2% per year in Germany and by 23.8% per year in China, which corresponds to a reduction by half in 13 years and in 3 years, respectively. Results indicate that policy measures to increase the productivity of research and development (R&D) are important for curbing the ongoing global productivity slowdown.

Böing, Philipp and Paul Hünermund (2023), Is there a slowdown in research productivity? Evidence from China and Germany, in: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Eds.), OECD Publishing, Paris,