Measuring intangible capital and its contribution to economic growth in Europe

Bart van Ark (bart.vanark@manchester.ac.uk), Janet X. Hao, Carol Corrado and Charles Hulten
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Janet X. Hao: The Conference Board
Charles Hulten: The Conference Board

No 3/2009, EIB Papers from European Investment Bank, Economics Department

Abstract: This study describes the state of the art in the measurement of intangible capital and its contribution to economic growth, with a focus on an international comparison of intangible capital deepening among eleven advanced economies. By employing a broad measure of intangibles, including computerized information, innovative property and economic competencies, we find a relatively large impact on growth. Intangible capital explains about a quarter of labour-productivity in the US and larger countries of the EU. The continental West-European countries show a distinction between countries with significant contributions from intangible capital deepening and a group of laggards. Catching-up countries such as the Czech Republic, Greece and Slovakia show much larger contributions from tangible capital deepening than from intangibles, and also larger multi-factor productivity (MFP) growth rates related to the restructuring of those countries.

Keywords: Economic growth; productivity; capital; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O30 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2009-12-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-eff, nep-fdg and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (106)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:eibpap:2009_003

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