Measuring Intangible Assets – A Review of the State of the Art (D3.1)
The measurement of intangible assets have developed through time, both in terms of definition, method and data. This paper seeks to cover all forms of recent analysis and statistical work concerning the measurement of intangible assets.
The review of literature is guided by four key dimensions:
- Purpose for the measurement of intangibles
- Methods of measuring intangibles
- Conceptualizations and types of intangible assets (IA)
- The level of aggregation for measures.
The paper finds a gap between the broad measurement of intangible assets in many studies, such as Corrado et al. (2009) and Görzig et al. (2010), and the more limited set of intangibles that are treated as capital formation in accounting practices or national accounts.
- Further work is needed, both concerning the estimation of ‘technical’ aspects such as depreciation rates and deflators, and in the continued testing and comparison of different measurement efforts.
- Micro-based work will be important for the estimation of depreciation rates and in better understanding (and thereby better measuring) of broader forms of intangibles