The first comprehensive account of the growing dominance of the intangible economy.
Early in the twenty-first century, a quiet revolution occurred. For the first time, the major developed economies began to invest more in intangible assets, like design, branding, R&D, and software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, the ability to deploy assets that one can neither see nor touch is increasingly the main source of long-term success.
But this is not just a familiar story of the so-called new economy. Capitalism without Capital shows that the growing importance of intangible assets has also played a role in some of the big economic changes of the last decade. The rise of intangible investment is, Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake argue, an underappreciated cause of phenomena from economic inequality to stagnating productivity.
Haskel and Westlake bring together a decade of research on how to measure intangible investment and its impact on national accounts, showing the amount different countries invest in intangibles, how this has changed over time, and the latest thinking on how to assess this. They explore the unusual economic characteristics of intangible investment, and discuss how these features make an intangible-rich economy fundamentally different from one based on tangibles.
Capitalism without Capital concludes by presenting three possible scenarios for what the future of an intangible world might be like, and by outlining how managers, investors, and policymakers can exploit the characteristics of an intangible age to grow their businesses, portfolios, and economies.
Jonathan Haskel is professor of economics at Imperial College Business School. Stian Westlake is a senior fellow at Nesta, the UK’s national foundation for innovation. Haskel and Westlake are cowinners of the 2017 Indigo Prize.
By:
Jonathan Haskel,
Stian Westlake
Imprint: Princeton University Pres
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 203mm,
Width: 133mm,
ISBN: 9780691183299
ISBN 10: 0691183295
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 02 January 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix 1 Introduction 1 Part I The Rise of the Intangible Economy 2 Capital's Vanishing Act 15 3 How to Measure Intangible Investment 36 4 What's Different about Intangible Investment? The Four S's of Intangibles 58 Part II The Consequences of the Rise of the Intangible Economy 5 Intangibles, Investment, Productivity, and Secular Stagnation 91 6 Intangibles and the Rise of Inequality 118 7 Infrastructure for Intangibles, and Intangible Infrastructure 144 8 The Challenge of Financing an Intangible Economy 158 9 Competing, Managing, and Investing in the Intangible Economy 182 10 Public Policy in an Intangible Economy: Five Hard Questions 208 11 Summary, Conclusion, and the Way Ahead 239 Notes 243 References 253 Index 267
Jonathan Haskel is professor of economics at Imperial College Business School. Stian Westlake is a senior fellow at Nesta, the UK's national foundation for innovation. Haskel and Westlake are cowinners of the 2017 Indigo Prize.
Reviews for Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy
The book makes its case in a lighthearted, conversational way that will appeal to economists and non-economists alike. --The Economist One of this year's most important and stimulating economic reads.... Read this book. --Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution One of the year's most talked-about books. --John Harris, The Guardian For an introduction ... it would be hard to do better than Capitalism without Capital, which is clear and lively and raises--without having all the answers--the relevant questions. --Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist Compelling.... Haskel and Westlake have mapped the economics of a challenging new economy. --Martin Wolf, Financial Times Selected for Askblog's Books of the year 2017, chosen by Arnold Kling One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Books of 2017: Economics One of Blackwell's Best of Non-Fiction 2017 One of the Economist.com Wise Words 2017 Books of the Year in Economics and Business
- Commended for Askblog's Books of the year 2017, chosen by Arnold Kling 2017
- Short-listed for Financial Times (FT.com) Best Books of 2017: Economics 2017
- Short-listed for Blackwell's Best of Non-Fiction 2017 2017
- Short-listed for Economist.com Wise Words 2017 Books of the Year in Economics and Business 2017
