---
title: "Labor productivity research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “labor productivity” appeared in 942 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (584), management (140) and finance (82)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/labor-productivity
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/labor-productivity.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “labor productivity” appeared in 942 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (584), management (140) and finance (82). (as of 2026-11-05)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-05T06:02:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-07 to 2026-11-05
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “labor productivity”

[Browse research topics](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/directory/page/4.md)

Research on “labor productivity” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “labor productivity” appeared in 942 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (584), management (140) and finance (82).
- 142 of them were published in 2025, against 75 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were IZA - Institute of Labor Economics (12), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (9) and Jinan University (7).
- The journals publishing most of them were Economic Analysis and Policy (22), Structural Change and Economic Dynamics (17) and Journal of the Knowledge Economy (17).
- The most-cited of them is “Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?” (Ecological Economics, 2020), with 1,170 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 49 | 43 | 42 | 56 | 52 | 61 | 67 | 74 | 83 | 57 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 10 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 19 | 23 | 13 | 19 | 19 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 5 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 9 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 4 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 75 | 61 | 67 | 77 | 81 | 100 | 115 | 115 | 142 | 109 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 22 |
| 2 | [Structural Change and Economic Dynamics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/structural-change-and-economic-dynamics.md) | 17 |
| 3 | [Journal of the Knowledge Economy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-the-knowledge-economy.md) | 17 |
| 4 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 13 |
| 5 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 12 |
| 6 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 11 |
| 7 | [Economic Modelling](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-modelling.md) | 11 |
| 8 | [Small Business Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/small-business-economics.md) | 11 |
| 9 | [Indian Journal of Labour Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/indian-journal-of-labour-economics.md) | 10 |
| 10 | [Economics Letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economics-letters.md) | 9 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [IZA - Institute of Labor Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/iza-institute-of-labor-economics.md) | 12 |
| 2 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 9 |
| 3 | [Jinan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/jinan-university.md) | 7 |
| 4 | [Peking University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/peking-university.md) | 7 |
| 5 | [Shanghai University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shanghai-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 7 |
| 6 | [Shandong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shandong-university.md) | 6 |
| 7 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 6 |
| 8 | [Zhejiang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-university.md) | 6 |
| 9 | [Cardiff University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/cardiff-university.md) | 5 |
| 10 | [Centre for Economic Policy Research](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/centre-for-economic-policy-research.md) | 5 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 127 |
| 2 | United States | 75 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 58 |
| 4 | Germany | 40 |
| 5 | Italy | 37 |
| 6 | India | 34 |
| 7 | Japan | 24 |
| 8 | Spain | 20 |
| 9 | France | 19 |
| 10 | Australia | 18 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 46 |
| 2 | [total factor productivity](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/total-factor-productivity.md) | 42 |
| 3 | [firm size](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-size.md) | 28 |
| 4 | [COVID-19 pandemic](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/covid-19-pandemic.md) | 25 |
| 5 | [firm performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/firm-performance.md) | 23 |
| 6 | [economic growth](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/economic-growth.md) | 19 |
| 7 | [manufacturing companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/manufacturing-companies.md) | 19 |
| 8 | wages | 19 |
| 9 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 17 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,170 | 15.3 | [Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106760) | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 2020-06-23 | Steffen Lange, Johanna Pohl, Tilman Santarius |
| 2 | 563 | 5.1 | [The real effects of mandated information on social responsibility in financial reports: Evidence from mine-safety records](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2017.08.001) | [Journal of Accounting and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-accounting-and-economics.md) | 2017-09-23 | Hans Bonde Christensen, Eric Floyd, Lisa Yao Liu et al. |
| 3 | 460 | 6.7 | [The costs of “blue sky”: Environmental regulation, technology upgrading, and labor demand in China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102610) | [Journal of Development Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-development-economics.md) | 2021-02-06 | Mengdi Liu, Ruipeng Tan, Bing Zhang |
| 4 | 459 | 8.7 | [The effects of digital transformation on innovation and productivity: Firm-level evidence of South African manufacturing micro and small enterprises](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121785) | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 2022-06-21 | Cyrielle Gaglio, Erika Kraemer‐Mbula, Edward Lorenz |
| 5 | 391 | 5.7 | [Here comes Generation Z: Millennials as managers](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.013) | [Business Horizons](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/business-horizons.md) | 2021-02-03 | Karina Gabrielova, Aaron A. Buchko |

## Research ideas that follow this keyword

- [Heat and the productivity of work](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/heat-and-labour-productivity.md)

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “labor productivity”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/labor-productivity

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-labor-productivity,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “labor productivity”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/labor-productivity}},
  urldate = {2026-11-05},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).