The intangible economy poses challenges for measurement and analysis from "summary" of Capitalism without Capital by Jonathan Haskel,Stian Westlake
In the modern economy, traditional measures of economic activity like GDP and productivity may not capture the full extent of value creation. This is because intangible assets such as intellectual property, organizational know-how, and brand recognition are playing an increasingly important role in driving economic growth. These intangible assets are difficult to measure and value, which poses challenges for traditional methods of economic analysis. One reason for the difficulty in measuring the intangible economy is that many of these assets do not have a market price. Unlike physical assets like buildings or machinery, which have a clear market value, intangible assets are often unique to a particular firm and may not be easily traded. This makes it challenging to accurately quantify the contribution of intangibles to overall economic output. Furthermore, the nature of intangible assets makes them inherently difficult to measure. For example, how do you quantify the value of a company's brand reputation or its employee's skills and knowledge? These assets are often intangible and difficult to quantify in monetary terms, making it hard to assess their impact on economic performance. Another challenge in measuring the intangible economy is that traditional economic statistics are based on physical inputs and outputs, which may not capture the full extent of intangible value creation. For example, when a firm invests in research and development to develop a new technology, this investment may not show up in traditional measures of economic activity until the new technology is actually produced and sold.- The intangible economy presents challenges for measurement and analysis because traditional economic metrics are not well-equipped to capture the value of intangible assets. As intangibles become increasingly important in driving economic growth, policymakers and economists will need to develop new tools and methods to accurately assess the impact of intangible assets on the economy.
