Intellectual Property
in the Netherlands
Murat Tanriseven
1-3 December, 2010 WPNA meeting
Capital in the standard National
Accounts (SNA 2008)
…is from a knowledge perspective too limited
• Current SNA coverage of intellecual property
products (IPP):
R&D (new), Mineral exploration, Software and
databases, Artistic originals
• Missing:
Brand equity, Organizational innovations,
Architectural and engineering designs, human
capital (Corrado, Hulten & Sichel)
SNA 2008 Asset boundary
Requirements for an entity to be an asset:
•
Store of value
•
(series of) Benefits accruing to owner
•
Carrying forward value from one
accounting period to another
…brand names, non-technological
(organizational) innovations, human
capital?
Source and Methods
Sources:
• R&D survey, Continuing vocational training
surveys, national accounts data…
Methods:
• Perpetual Inventory (time series investment
expenditure)
• Service lives: R&D (9, 12, 15 years), Firm specific
human capital (7-13).
Summary of findings
IPP’s in the Netherlands: Investments by asset type, current price levels
billion euro
60
50
Organisational
structure
40
Firm-specific human
capital
30
Brand equity
20
Other innovative
property
Research an
development
10
Software
0
Year
Summary of findings
Investments in intellectual property in the commercial sector * as a percentage of GDP, 2006
Netherlands
Germa- France
ny
Italy
Spain
UK
US
percent
1. Computerized information
2. Innovative property
3. Economic competencies
1,2
1,4
4,8
0,7
3,6
2,8
1,4
3,2
3,3
0,6
2,2
2,2
0,8
2,8
1,9
1,6
3,2
5,8
1,6
4,4
5,5
Total investment
7,4
7,2
7,9
5,0
5,5
10,5
11,5
Sources:
van Ark, Bart, Janet X. Hao, Carol Corrado and Charles Hulten (2009), van Rooijen-Horsten et al. (2008)
* For the sake of international comparability we took the commercial sector and excluded also the health
sector
Growth accounting results
• The contribution of intellectual property to output
growth of 0.5 percentage points in 1996-2001 is as
large as the contribution of other fixed assets;
• Sharp decline in (among others) computer hardware
and software investment growth rates due to the end
of the internet hype led to a small contribution of
intellectual property and also other fixed assets to
output growth in 2002-2007;
• In 1996-2001 and 2002-2007 intellectual property
explains part of output growth leading to lower MFP
changes as being the growth residual.
• In 2009 the commercial sector invested 7 percent less
in IPP.
Concluding remarks
• Intellectual property explains part of output
growth (1996-2007) leading to lower MFP
changes as being the growth residual;
• Large differences between industries, the
industry ‘financial and business activities’ is
a dominant invester in intellectual property ;
• The Netherlands invest a lot in economic
competencies, compared to other countries;
• R&D (technical innovation) does not tell the
complete story of the knowledge economy
Future work
• Adapt concepts in an internationally
harmonized way
• Improvement of estimates
• Further research on missing intellectual
property products (e.g. architectural and
engineering designs on own account, new
product development costs in the financial
industry)