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Cross‐Country Income Differences Revisited: Accounting for the Role of Intangible Capital

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  • Wen Chen

Abstract

This paper develops a new intangible investment database that is consistent and internationally comparable for a set of 60 economies over the period 1995–2011. I find that over time a growing share of total investment consists of intangible assets, rather than investment in tangible assets, like machinery and buildings. Across countries, the level of economic development of a country is positively associated with its investment intensity in intangibles. By including intangible capital as an additional production factor, this paper finds that we can account for substantially more of the variation in cross‐country income levels. Depending on the assumptions regarding the output elasticities of factor inputs, the observed differences in intangible capital can account for up to 16 percentage points of the cross‐country income variation.

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  • Wen Chen, 2018. "Cross‐Country Income Differences Revisited: Accounting for the Role of Intangible Capital," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(3), pages 626-648, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:64:y:2018:i:3:p:626-648
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.12305
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    Cited by:

    1. Daan Freeman & Robert Inklaar & W. Erwin Diewert, 2021. "Natural Resources and Missing Inputs in International Productivity Comparisons," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(1), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Mattia Di Ubaldo & Iulia Siedschlag, 2021. "Investment in Knowledge‐Based Capital and Productivity: Firm‐Level Evidence from a Small Open Economy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 363-393, June.
    3. Robert Inklaar & Pieter Woltjer & Daniel Gallardo Albarrán, 2019. "The Composition of Capital and Cross-Country Productivity Comparisons," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 36, pages 34-52, Spring.
    4. Roth, Felix, 2019. "Intangible Capital and Labour Productivity Growth: A Review of the Literature," Hamburg Discussion Papers in International Economics 4, University of Hamburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Daniel Gallardo‐Albarrán & Robert Inklaar, 2021. "The Role Of Capital And Productivity In Accounting For Income Differences Since 1913," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 952-974, July.
    6. Breithaupt, Patrick & Kesler, Reinhold & Niebel, Thomas & Rammer, Christian, 2020. "Intangible capital indicators based on web scraping of social media," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-046, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Claudio Fassio & Sona Kalantaryan & Alessandra Venturini, 2020. "Foreign Human Capital and Total Factor Productivity: A Sectoral Approach," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(3), pages 613-646, September.

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