Linda Argote

Organizational-behavior researcher who, with coauthors Beckman and Epple (1990), originated the organizational-forgetting specification — experience depreciating by a constant factor each period — that C. Lanier Benkard later adopts and estimates for aircraft production. Her own study (ship production) found much faster forgetting (depreciation parameter 0.75–0.85, i.e. only 5–15% of experience retained per year) than Benkard's L-1011 estimate. Known to the vault so far only through Benkard's citation of her work, not through a direct read of her own paper.

References

• claim-benkard-2000-estimate-implies-far-less-forgetting-than-prior-studies · claim-organizational-forgetting-can-reverse-the-learning-curve

• claim-thompson-2007-re-estimate-is-one-fifth-to-one-seventh-of-argote-1990-25-percent-figure

• Related hubs: entity-c-lanier-benkard · entity-organizational-forgetting · entity-peter-thompson · entity-leonard-rapping

• Captures: 2026-07-24-does-benkard-2000-report-the-organizational-forgetting-depreciation, 10-inbox/raw/2026-09-29-does-peter-thompsons-2007-liberty-ships-paper-establish.md

• 2026-09-29: A second, independent citation of her paper's headline figure — Thompson (2007), read directly at primary, restates the same 25%-per-month depreciation rate Benkard (2000) had already cited, and directly compares his own re-estimate (3.6–5.7%/month) against it. Both citations agree with each other, but both trace back to the same unread 1990 original — see question-verify-argote-beckman-epple-1990-primary-figures. (claim-thompson-2007-re-estimate-is-one-fifth-to-one-seventh-of-argote-1990-25-percent-figure)

• 2026-09-30: A third, independent primary contact — Thompson's separate 1997 working paper (on Liberty-ship learning, not the 2007 paper on forgetting) — corroborates that her 1990 paper with Beckman and Epple extended Rapping's (1965) production-function specification by adding a labor-turnover term, rather than replacing it. Her own current CV also confirms the paper's exact bibliographic identity and surfaces a previously-unknown same-year companion piece, "Argote, L., & Epple, D. (1990). Learning Curves in Manufacturing," Science 247:920–924 — still unread, but a possible shorter route to the headline figure. The figure itself remains unverified at primary after an extensive search this session. (claim-thompson-1997-describes-argote-beckman-epple-1990-as-extending-rapping-1965, claim-argote-cv-lists-companion-1990-science-paper-with-epple)