Yes, some academic research paper on this topic would be always interesting to read... There is also so called academic discussion - where two sides have different view on given matter and sometimes it requires a time to be verified by the reality.

I only want to say from my almost 50yo experience (academic, too) - network hashrate can be more-less constant or can be slightly increasing (both options are "good for Bitcoin") but we should definitely try to avoid network security regression. That's all.