Intangible capital and Productivity Growth in European Countries

This paper provides evidence about the diffusion of intangible investment across the EU27 member countries and investigates the role of intangible capital as a source of growth to improve our understanding of the international differences in the mix of drivers of productivity growth across Europe. Our study shows that the capitalization of intangible assets, allow identifying additional sources of long-run growth. We show that intangibles have been a relevant source of growth across European countries and that they cannot be omitted from national accounts. In particular, the ?unexplained? component of macro-economic dynamics, the Total Factor Productivity, becomes less important, while physical capital turns out to be strongly complementary with intangible capital.