Capitalism Without Capital The Rise of the Intangible Economy

Early in the twenty-first century, the major developed economies began to put more money into intangible assets than into tangible ones. Design, branding, R&D and software now take a larger share of investment than machinery, buildings and computers.

Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake argue that this shift reaches well past the technology sector. Pharma companies, coffee shops and gyms all depend on assets nobody can see or touch for their long-term success. They also argue that the rise of intangible investment is an underappreciated cause of economic inequality and stagnating productivity.

This is a work of economic non-fiction built on a decade of research into how intangible investment is measured and how it shows up in national accounts. The authors set out how much different countries invest in intangibles, how those figures have moved over time, and the latest thinking on assessing them.

They describe the unusual economic characteristics of intangibles and explain why an economy rich in them works differently from one built on tangibles. The book closes with three possible futures for an intangible world, and with advice for managers, investors and policymakers on how to grow businesses, portfolios and economies in it.