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Open research questions in Economic Growth and Productivity

437 gap statements mined from Economic Growth and Productivity papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 4,842 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Few studies have explored the temporal evolution and convergence patterns of urban expansion. The existing literature has not examined the variations in urban expansion among cities and tested convergence at national and regional scales.

    Temporal Evolution and Convergence Patterns of Urban Expansion in China: Evidence from 315 Cities over Two Decades · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the moderating influence of institutional quality on this dynamic has not been adequately addressed in prior research.

    Will institutional quality moderate the effects of national intellectual capital on economic growth? · 2024 · DOI

  • These results suggest that experimental R&D has been crucial for enhancing TFP growth in China during the decades investigated, but evidence of basic and applied R&D driving TFP growth in China is lacking.

    Has R&D contributed to productivity growth in China? The role of basic, applied and experimental R&D · 2024 · DOI

  • Research often suggests that population ageing will be detrimental for the economy due to increased labour market exits and lost productivity, however the role of population health and disability at older ages is not well established.

    Health, an ageing labour force, and the economy: Does health moderate the relationship between population age-structure and economic growth? · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research could address these limitations by employing longer time series, incorporating additional countries, or conducting disaggregated analyses at the sectoral or regional level. Additionally, the study does not account for potential structural breaks, policy changes, or external shocks that could influence the relationships under investigation.

    Savings, Investment, Capital to Labour Ratio and Labour Productivity in the European Union over the Period 2000–2022 · 2026 · DOI

  • The study does not receive any grant from a funding institution. The funding is covered by the authors' own expense. The study may have limitations due to the lack of external funding.

    ECONOMIC GROWTH DRIVERS: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FOR DEVELOPING EUROPEAN COUNTRIES · 2026 · DOI

  • Traditional economic growth models do not fully capture the complexity of contemporary economic realities. The study aims to fill the gap by providing a comprehensive examination of economic growth drivers in developing European countries. The study seeks to identify the key factors contributing to economic growth.

    ECONOMIC GROWTH DRIVERS: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FOR DEVELOPING EUROPEAN COUNTRIES · 2026 · DOI

  • There has been an extensive amount of research devoted to innovative activity in universities, and not much research is done on the factors of higher education influencing the innovative activity of enterprises. The study aims to fill this gap by evaluating the effect of the major higher education institutional factors on the innovative activity of enterprises in the country.

    ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF HIGHER EDUCATION FACTORS ON INNOVATIVE ACTIVITY OF ENTERPRISES: AN ARDL APPROACH · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should investigate the role of public policies in shaping innovation and economic growth. It should explore the relationship between creative destruction, innovation, and productivity growth.

    Spinning Jennies and Silicon: The Economics of Innovating or Evaporating – Creative Destruction and Public Policies · 2026 · DOI

  • There is little understanding of how the supply and demand sides of international financial integration work together in a world with heterogeneous firms and expenditure elasticities of demand. The study aims to fill this gap by assessing the effects of international financial flows on resource allocation.

    The Micro and Macro Dynamics of Capital Flows · 2026 · DOI

  • Using an OLS regression model based on data from 2010-2024, the study demonstrated that current linear growth dynamics are insufficient to meet either the EU-wide 3% GDP target or the Slovak national target of 2% GDP by 2030.

    Econometric analysis and forecasting of R&D intensity as a basis for a comparative study of Slovakia and the EU27 towards 2030 targets · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should investigate micro-level factors such as household production practices, access to credit, market integration, and gender dynamics in agriculture to provide a more nuanced understanding of the sector’s challenges and opportunities.

    The Impact of Agricultural Production on Economic Growth in Somalia · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should investigate the impact of digitalization on specific aspects of human capital development. The study suggests further analysis of the relationship between technological innovation and human capital development in different contexts.

    The Impact of Innovative Technologies on Increasing the Competitiveness of Human Capital in the Agricultural Economy · 2026 · DOI

  • The study highlights the need for further research on the relationship between digitalization and human capital development.

    The Impact of Innovative Technologies on Increasing the Competitiveness of Human Capital in the Agricultural Economy · 2026 · DOI

  • Future studies can examine the relationships between R&D investment, export performance, and GDP growth in emerging economies. Future studies can use more advanced methodologies to capture the complexities of the relationships. Future studies can explore the role of other factors, such as institutional frameworks and policy environments, in shaping the relationships.

    R&D Investment and Export Performance as Drivers of Sustainable GDP Growth: Evidence from Developed Economies · 2026 · DOI

  • Establish Price and Labor Stability as Fiscal Pre-conditions: Central banks (such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) and economic planning agencies may prioritize absolute price and labor market stability not merely as isolated targets, but as core requirements for fiscal policy success.

    Determinants of Gross Domestic Product: A Structural Equation Modeling · 2026 · DOI

  • The exact relationship between taxation levels and socio-economic development via per capita income and GDP growth remains mixed. There is a need to quantify the impact of demographic and fiscal policy shocks on per capita income in Zambia.

    How Demographic and Fiscal Policy Shocks Affect Per Capita Income: Evidence from Zambia’s Orthogonalized Impulse Response Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could explore alternative methods for index construction, such as using machine learning techniques to adjust weights based on evolving data dynamically.

    The socioeconomic capacities driving human capital development: a comparative study across selected countries · 2026 · DOI

  • It argues that the current literature does not fully explain the productivity slowdown in advanced OECD economies.

    Spinning Jennies and Silicon: The Economics of Innovating or Evaporating – Creative Destruction and Public Policies · 2026 · DOI

  • The OLS method estimated good estimates of how these variables interact in different countries and showed positive as well as mixed results.

    THE IMPACT OF HIGH-TECH EXPORTS ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN G-8 COUNTRIES: EXAMINING THE INNOVATION - GROWTH NEXUS · 2026 · DOI

  • The study focuses on developed economies, with limited insights into emerging economies. The correlation analysis may not capture the complexities of the relationships between R&D investment, export performance, and GDP growth.

    R&D Investment and Export Performance as Drivers of Sustainable GDP Growth: Evidence from Developed Economies · 2026 · DOI

  • It shows that the action of two infinite commuting invariant rings of endomorphisms of a finite-dimensional virtually connected irreducible bi-module linearizes into a vector space over a definable field.

    Endogenies and linearisation · 2026 · DOI

  • The task-based model of automation has been applied to previous technologies, but AI has different effects.

    Current Artificial Intelligence (AI) Advancements Are Rapidly Increasing Investment and Significant to GDP Growth · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in understanding the key determinants of the performance of the manufacturing sector in D-8 countries. The study aims to fill this gap by investigating the macroeconomic determinants of the manufacturing sector.

    Macroeconomic Drivers of Industrial Performance in the Developing Eight (D-8) Countries · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the literature by noting that prior studies often fail to disaggregate internal from international migration. The study responds to this gap by distinguishing between internal and international flows and positioning MST as the main variable of interest.

    Convergence in age-standardized population turnover across Italian territories · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Economic Growth and Productivity

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research could address these limitations by employing longer time series, incorporating additional countries, or conducting disaggregated analyses at the sectoral or regional level (“Savings, Investment, Capital to Labour Ratio and Labour Productivity in the…”, 2026); (2) The study may have limitations due to the lack of external funding (“ECONOMIC GROWTH DRIVERS: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS FOR DEVELOPING EUROPEAN COUNTRIES”, 2026); (3) Future research should investigate the role of public policies in shaping innovation and economic growth (“Spinning Jennies and Silicon: The Economics of Innovating or Evaporating –…”, 2026); (4) Future research should investigate the impact of digitalization on specific aspects of human capital development (“The Impact of Innovative Technologies on Increasing the Competitiveness of…”, 2026); (5) Future studies can examine the relationships between R&D investment, export performance, and GDP growth in emerging economies (“R&D Investment and Export Performance as Drivers of Sustainable GDP Growth:…”, 2026). 437 gap statements have been mined from Economic Growth and Productivity papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 4,842 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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