Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy
by Jonathan Haskel  (Author), Stian Westlake  (Author)

About the Author
Jonathan Haskel is professor of economics at Imperial College Business School. Stian Westlake is advisor to the UK Minister of Science and Innovation. Haskel and Westlake were cowinners of the 2017 Indigo Prize.

About this book
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.

Brief contents
1. Introduction
Part I. The Rise of the Intangible Economy
2. Capital’s Vanishing Act
3. How to Measure Intangible Investment
4. What’s Different about Intangible Investment?
Part II. The Consequences of the Rise of the Intangible Economy
5. Intangibles, Investment, Productivity, and Secular Stagnation
6. Intangibles and the Rise of Inequality
7. Infrastructure for Intangibles, and Intangible Infrastructure
8. The Challenge of Financing an Intangible Economy
9. Competing, Managing, and Investing in the Intangible Economy
10. Public Policy in an Intangible Economy: Five Hard Questions
11. Summary, Conclusion, and the Way Ahead
Notes
References
Index

Pages: 296 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press; Reprint edition (October 16, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0691183295
ISBN-13: 978-0691183299