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The contribution of intangible assets to sectoral productivity growth in the EU

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  • Niebel, Thomas
  • O'Mahony, Mary
  • Saam, Marianne

Abstract

In this paper we report on new data on intangible investment at the level of 1-digit NACE industries of 10 EU countries. The data are constructed as a sectoral breakdown of the INTANInvest database, which contains measures of intangible investment at the level of the aggregate business sector. With the sectoral data we assess the contribution of intangibles to productivity growth based on growth accounting and econometric estimation of production functions. The growth accounting contribution of intangibles to labor productivity growth is generally highest in manufacturing and finance. The estimated output elasticity of intangibles lies between 0.1 and 0.2, considerably below values found in previous research using aggregate data.

Suggested Citation

  • Niebel, Thomas & O'Mahony, Mary & Saam, Marianne, 2013. "The contribution of intangible assets to sectoral productivity growth in the EU," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-062, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:13062
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intangible Assets; Labor Productivity; Growth Accounting; Panel Regressions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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