Intangible Capital and Modern Economies

Bibliographic Data

ID4029630
AuthorsCarol Corrado (Carol Corrado is Distinguished Principal Research Fellow in Economics, The Conference Board, New York City, New York, and Senior Policy Scholar, Center on Business and Public Policy, Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, Washington, DC.), Jonathan Haskel (0000-0003-2961-165X, Jonathan Haskel is Professor of Economics, Imperial College Business School, and an External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England, London, United Kingdom.), Cecilia Jona-Lasinio (Cecilia Jona-Lasinio is Senior Researcher at the Italian Statistical Institute (ISTAT) and Professor of International Economics at LUISS University, both in Rome, Italy.), Cecilia Jona‐Lasinio (0000-0002-6796-5152, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica), Massimiliano Iommi (Massimiliano Iommi is a Senior Researcher, Italian Statistical Institute, and a Research Fellow, LUISS Lab of European Economics, both in Rome, Italy.)
Year2022
Volume36
Issue3
Pages3-28
Publication date2022-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965
PublisherAmerican Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1257/jep.36.3.3
OpenAlexW4293327511
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited4

The production of goods and services is central to understanding economies. The textbook description of a firm, typically in agriculture or manufacturing, focuses on its physical "tangible" capital (machines), labor (workers), and the state of "know-how. " Yet real-world firms, such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google, have almost no physical capital. Instead, their main capital assets are "intangible": software, data, design, reputation, supply-chain expertise, and R&D. We discuss investment in these knowledge-based types of capital: How to measure it; how it affects macroeconomic data on investment, rates of return, and GDP; and how it relates to growth theory and practical growth accounting. We present estimates of productivity in the US and European economies in recent decades including intangibles and discuss why, despite relatively rapid growth in intangible capital and what seems to be a modern technological revolution, productivity growth has slowed since the global financial crisis

Business · Capital good · Economics · Economy · Financial capital · Goods and services · Growth accounting · Human capital · Macroeconomics · Market economy · Monetary economics · Physical capital · Productivity · Total factor productivity · Economic Growth and Productivity · Economic theories and models · Intellectual Capital and Performance Analysis

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