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, and software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, 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 larger economic changes of the past decade, including the growth in economic inequality and the stagnation of productivity. Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake explore the unusual economic characteristics of intangible investment and discuss how an economy rich in intangibles is fundamentally different from one based on tangibles. Capitalism without Capital concludes by outlining how managers, investors, and policymakers can exploit the characteristics of an intangible age to grow their businesses, portfolios, and economies.

"Restarting the Future argues that the big economic challenges facing the world are the result of our failure to deal with the implications of an economy dependent on knowledge, ideas and relationships. It examines why making this transition is so hard, and looks at ways forward in the fields of public policy, business and finance. The troubling state of rich-world economies (low productivity growth, high inequality, populist instability, climate crisis) is significantly the result of the troubled and incomplete shift to a new type of economy - specifically, the move from an economy dependent on tangible capital to one dependent on intangible capital. At the heart of the problem is a significant slowdown in the pace of intangible investment since the financial crisis. (There were some early signs of this at the time the authors were writing their previous book, Capitalism without Capital, but new data now makes the severity and persistence of this slowdown clear.) This slowdown has happened because we lack the right institutions and strategies to encourage intangible investment and channel it effectively. What is more, there are significant groups with an interest in stopping these new institutions emerging. Contrary to the dominant narrative that focuses on the tension between a successful, future-facing "elite" and a mass of low-status "left-behinds", the authors argue that many of the people and organisations with an interest in holding back the future are affluent and high-status, including affluent retirees, established financial institutions and graduate knowledge workers. Haskel & Westlake survey attempts to fix these institutional problems, explaining how they work in the context of the intangible economy, and what the upside to solving them might be. They describe interesting and topical policy experiments and business strategies (such as Preston's Local Economic Strategy, or topical new business models like WeWork and CloudKitchens) and set them in a novel economic context. (Specifically, these sections look at city policy, business finance and investment, public investment, competition policy, monetary policy, mitigating climate change and business strategies for tangible-based firms. The authors close the book with a political programme for how to get over the teething troubles of the new economy"--

This book is the result of a two-year interdisciplinary research programme named PRISM (Policy making, Reporting and measuring, Intangibles, Skills development and Management), financed by the European Commission and aimed both at understanding better how these assets are created and developed and what the policy implications of their growing importance in economies are. The book focuses on the policy issues raised by the increasing importance of intangible assets in a country's growth and competitiveness. The main idea is that the value of intangible assets, which is imperfectly captured by current economic indicators and imperfectly formalized in economic theory, lies in their being the cumulative elements that keep the economy together - the glue of the system. This argument leads to the focus on networks and social capital as drivers of the development of intangible assets and is illustrated by the case of EU innovation and knowledge diffusion policy.

'I had the privilege and pleasure of supervising the Ph.D. dissertation from which the present book originated. Its author, Beth Webster, was independent, critical in a positive way and original. She acquired a most thorough knowledge and mastery of the relevant literature. She recognized early on the growing importance, both qualitatively and quantitatively, of investment in intangible assets in modern economic processes. She set about developing an appropriate framework, drawing on Kalecki's insights in particular, within which to analyse the issues involved. The outcome is the present book - which is original, relevant, comprehensive and a pleasure to read.' - G.C. Harcourt, University of New South Wales, Australia

Safeguarding Intangible Assets provides strategies for preserving and enhancing a company's intangible assets to increase its profitability, competitiveness, and sustainability. Intangible assets such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, methodologies, and brand typically account for 80 percent of an organization's value and revenue. There are many forces making it more and more difficult to protect these assets, and securing them is a complex issue often overlooked by security and risk managers. Many security managers do not have adequate policies or procedures in place to protect these assets from compromise, infringement, and theft. Safeguarding Intangible Assets provides managers with the tools necessary for protecting these assets through effective and consistent oversight designed to preserve their control, use, and ownership. The book offers strategies for various types of business transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate-university R&D alliances, new product launches, early stage firms, and university-based spin-offs. - Offers step-by-step guidelines and best practices for establishing and maintaining an intangible asset protection program - Provides intangible asset risk management strategies that preserve the company's value, revenue, and competitive advantages - Shows how to collaboratively build a company culture that anticipates and recognizes intangible asset risks in everyday transactions and operations - Strengthens the interface with other departments' security practices, including IT, management, legal, accounting, finance, and risk management

Despite the now widely recognized importance of intangible assets and intellectual capital, they still appear to be poorly understood by both academics and practitioners. Indeed, the necessity for adopting a fresh approach to their reporting, measurement and management is today generally clear and accepted. This book gives room to new perspectives which broaden the scope and depth of the investigation, whilst also opening up innovative methods and opportunities for practice.

Praise for Intangible Assets "In Intangible Assets, Jeffrey Cohen presents an informative, thought-provoking and practical look at an increasingly important component of every business's worth. He describes the art and science of identifying assets that have clear economic benefit, but are typically not found on the balance sheet, and he provides an invaluable framework within which the reader can value these assets, despite their elusive nature." --Rick Westervelt, President, Skylist, Inc. "Jeffrey Cohen's integrative approach to conceptual issues of intangible assets is creative and a refreshing contribution. He brings law, economics, finance, and accounting to the same table, which results in a comprehensive framework for understanding how value is created and sustained. His construct of 'proto-assets' and 'portfolio of intangible economic benefits' is key. Written in an easy-to-read style with many practical examples, this book will be useful for both novice and experienced professionals." --W. Dana Northcut, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Accounting Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago Principal, Chicago Partners, LLC "This volume is the perfect resource for newcomers to IP valuation. Through lucid explanations and well-chosen illustrations, it does for the reader exactly what a valuation expert should do for a client--it makes the abstract concrete. But this volume is not just for the novice; it holds insights that will be useful to IP experts in law, accounting, and economics." --Edward F. Malone, Partner, Jenner & Block LLP