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Intangible Assets, Industry Performance and Finance During Crises

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  • Carlo Altomonte
  • Peter Bauer
  • Alberto Maria Gilardi
  • Chiara Soriolo

Abstract

We take the global financial crisis (GFC), as an example of major crises, to study the trends of intangible investment, the link between industrial performance and intangible assets, and the differences of financing of intangible versus tangible assets during crises. We find an upward trend in investment intensities (investment-to-value added) for several kinds of intangible assets in almost all advanced EU countries, and in almost all sectors based on industry-level data. This trend started well before the GFC and the crisis had little impact on it, in contrast to tangible investment intensities, which declined a lot. Then we explore the potential role that intangible assets may play in weathering the negative effects of major crises using industry-level data. One of the main results about industrial performance is that pre-crisis R&D investment is robustly associated with economic resilience during the GFC, and higher productivity growth in the aftermath. Finally, we investigate how a financial turmoil may affect the financing of different assets. We combine insights from a macro (industry-level) and a micro (firm-level) approach to shed light on the importance of financial shocks in intangible investment. We find differences from tangible investment, mainly that tangibles are more sensitive to demand shocks, while intangible investment is more vulnerable to financial shocks. For the latter, our main explanation is that tight credit conditions create a trade-off between tangible and intangible investment financing.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Altomonte & Peter Bauer & Alberto Maria Gilardi & Chiara Soriolo, 2022. "Intangible Assets, Industry Performance and Finance During Crises," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 22173, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
  • Handle: RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp22173
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mr. JaeBin Ahn & Mr. Romain A Duval & Can Sever, 2020. "Macroeconomic Policy, Product Market Competition, and Growth: The Intangible Investment Channel," IMF Working Papers 2020/025, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Carol Corrado & Charles Hulten & Daniel Sichel, 2009. "Intangible Capital And U.S. Economic Growth," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(3), pages 661-685, September.
    3. Carlo Altomonte & Domenico Favoino & Monica Morlacco & Tommaso Sonno, 2021. "Markups, intangible capital and heterogeneous financial frictions," CEP Discussion Papers dp1740, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Michele Cincera & Julie Delanote & Pierre Mohnen & Anabela Santos & Christoph Weiss, 2020. "Intangible investments and productivity performance," GEE Papers 0145, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Mar 2020.
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    1. Nguyen, Harvey & Pham, Anh Viet & Pham, Man Duy (Marty) & Pham, Mia Hang, 2023. "Business resilience: Lessons from government responses to the global COVID-19 crisis," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    productivity; financial crisis; resilience; intangible assets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies

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