{
  "title": "Artificial Intelligence and Aggregate Labor Productivity: Evidence from Patent Data",
  "publication": "IMF Working Papers",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2026/09/25/artificial-intelligence-and-aggregate-labor-productivity-evidence-from-patent-data-579850",
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  "summary": "This paper investigates the aggregate impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology on labor productivity, exploiting patent data in OECD countries during 2000-2017.",
  "authors": [
    "Kodjovi M. Eklou"
  ],
  "series": "IMF Working Papers",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview",
      "content": "- The paper investigates the aggregate impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology on labor productivity using patent data in OECD countries during 2000-2017.\n- Author: Kodjovi M. Eklou.\n- Publication: IMF Working Paper No. 2026/204, September 25, 2026.\n- Data focus: AI technology–related patent issuance and applications across OECD countries over 2000-2017."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key empirical findings",
      "content": "- After accelerating in 2000, the issuance of AI technology related patents has more than tripled by 2017.\n- OECD countries held about 89 percent of all these patents across the world during 2000-2017.\n- Using a production function approach and considering the pace of AI patent applications over 2000-2017:\n  - Labor productivity, measured as output per worker, has consequently increased by between 0.8 percent to 1.2 percent.\n  - Innovation in AI technology could raise aggregate labor productivity by up to 3.8 percent in the long-run.\n- The results are robust to accounting for a proxy of AI technology spillovers from other countries."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Mechanisms and heterogeneity",
      "content": "- Countries with a high share of employees in professional and managerial roles benefit from larger labor productivity gains from AI technology.\n- Gains from task complementarity with AI may take time to materialize as workers learn to fully appropriate the technology.\n- Labor market flexibility could shape labor productivity gains by enabling worker mobility."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Robustness and implications",
      "content": "- Robustness: Findings hold after controlling for international spillovers using a proxy of AI technology diffusion from other countries.\n- Projection and interpretation:\n  - Productivity gains could be larger in the future as the pace of innovation in AI gains new speed and spreads to more sectors of the economy.\n  - Long-run aggregate gains from AI innovation are potentially larger than observed short-run estimates, reaching up to 3.8 percent according to the paper’s estimates."
    }
  ],
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    "The paper investigates the aggregate impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology on labor productivity using patent data in OECD countries during 2000-2017.",
    "Author: Kodjovi M. Eklou.",
    "Publication: IMF Working Paper No. 2026/204, September 25, 2026.",
    "Data focus: AI technology–related patent issuance and applications across OECD countries over 2000-2017.",
    "After accelerating in 2000, the issuance of AI technology related patents has more than tripled by 2017.",
    "OECD countries held about 89 percent of all these patents across the world during 2000-2017.",
    "Using a production function approach and considering the pace of AI patent applications over 2000-2017:",
    "The results are robust to accounting for a proxy of AI technology spillovers from other countries.",
    "Countries with a high share of employees in professional and managerial roles benefit from larger labor productivity gains from AI technology.",
    "Gains from task complementarity with AI may take time to materialize as workers learn to fully appropriate the technology.",
    "Labor market flexibility could shape labor productivity gains by enabling worker mobility.",
    "Robustness: Findings hold after controlling for international spillovers using a proxy of AI technology diffusion from other countries.",
    "Projection and interpretation:",
    "**Artificial Intelligence and Aggregate Labor Productivity: Evidence from Patent Data**"
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