## Artificial Intelligence and Aggregate Labor Productivity: Evidence from Patent Data

_IMF Working Papers_

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Kodjovi M. Eklou
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229061599.001

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### Overview
- 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.

### Key empirical findings
- 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:
  - Labor productivity, measured as output per worker, has consequently increased by between 0.8 percent to 1.2 percent.
  - Innovation in AI technology could raise aggregate labor productivity by up to 3.8 percent in the long-run.
- The results are robust to accounting for a proxy of AI technology spillovers from other countries.

### Mechanisms and heterogeneity
- 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 and implications
- Robustness: Findings hold after controlling for international spillovers using a proxy of AI technology diffusion from other countries.
- Projection and interpretation:
  - 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.
  - 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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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2026/09/25/artificial-intelligence-and-aggregate-labor-productivity-evidence-from-patent-data-579850_