INDEX 
accounting, treatment of intangibles in, 202–4
advertising spending, 50
AirBnB, 24, 51; contestedness and, 115; legal travails of, 187; scalability of, 67; and synergies, 82
Akzo Nobel, 167
Allen, Robert, 83
American Airlines, 49
Andreessen, Marc, 23
Andrews, Dan, 96
Angry Birds, 65
Ansari-X Prize, 85
Anslow, Louis, 127
Appert jar, 64
Apple, 23–24, 51, 87, 104; and spillovers, 72–73, 110; and synergies, 86
applied knowledge, 65
assets, definition of, 19–21
Atkinson, Anthony, 118
Atlas, Charles, 18
authority, of managers, 189
automated bank teller machines, 127
Autor, David, 123
Awano, Gaganan, 56
Barth, Mary, 204
basic knowledge, 65
Baumol, William, 28
Baumol’s Cost Disease, 28
Bell, Daniel, 4
Beniger, James, 30
Berliner, Joseph S., 195
Black Cap pub, 150
Blaug, Mark, 54
blocking patents, 113–14
Bonnet, Odran, 128
Bono, Pierre-Henri, 128
Boulevard of Broken Dreams, The (Lerner), 178, 220
British Airports Authority (BAA), 1–2
British Airways, 49
British Coachways, 162
Brooker, Charles, 183
Brynjolfsson, Erik, 30, 82, 123
Buffet, Warren, 19
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), 39–41, 244n3
Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 76
Bush, Vannevar, 232
business climate, changes in, 31–34
Callaghan, James, 127
capital, 10; definition of, 19–21; human, 54, 119; social, 156, 236
Capital (Marx), 126
Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Piketty), 19, 121, 128, 136
capitalization, versus expensing, 202–4
Chapelle, Guillaume, 128
Chen, Ester, 204
Chesbrough, Henry, 83
Citibank, 40
Clayton, Tony, 42
code of laws, of Ur-Nammu, 75
codified knowledge, 65
Collecchia, Alessandra, 40
collective intelligence, 217
ComCab, 82
competitive advantage, 185–87
computerized information, 43–45
Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, 4, 42
contestedness, 87–88, 115, 132; venture capital and, 177
Cook, Tim, 51
Corbyn, Jeremy, 223
Corrado, Carol, 4, 5, 42, 43, 45
cost of intangible investment, 28
“creative class,” the, 215
Criscuolo, Chiara, 96
crowdfunding, 166
cult of the manager, 184
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, 79
data, 63
David, Paul, 151–52
Davies, Richard, 168
de Soto, Hernando, 153
Digital Copyright Exchange, 213
Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 76
disbenefits, 79
diversified investors, 205
Dodgson, Mark, 197
Doerr, John, 176
Domesday Book, 2–3
Downing, Kate, 148
DunnHumby, 23
economic competencies, 43–45
economies of scale, 185
Edgerton, David, 146
Edmans, Alex, 170, 171, 172–73
education and training, 51–52, 170, 228–30
Einstein, Albert, 127
e-mail, 217
EMIDEC computer, 59
employment strictness, 32
End of Accounting, The (Lev and Gu), 201, 220
endogenous growth theory, 62
Engelbart, Douglas, 217
Enron, 42
Entrepreneurial State, The (Mazzucato), 232
Ericsson, 104
esteem, inequality of, 122–23, 141–42; intangibles’ effects on, 129–40
expensing, versus capitalization, 202–4
Facebook, 34, 67, 170, 175, 217, 222
Fang, Vivian W., 171
fast followership, 110
Federal Reserve. See US Federal Reserve
FedEx, 190–91
financial assets, 20
Financial Times, 183
financing, 158–60, 179–81; banking industry and, 158–59, 162–66; through crowdfunding, 166; and equity markets, 169–74; for intangible investments, 218–21; and investing in the intangible economy, 201–6; problems in, 160–79; short-termism in, 161, 168–69; stock markets and, 167–68, 205–6; through venture capital (VC), 154–55, 161, 166, 174–79
Five Star Movement, 122–23
fixed assets, 20
Food and Drug Administration. See US Food and Drug Administration
Ford, Henry, 36
Forman, Chris, 139
Frascati Manual, 38
Freeman, Chris, 39
Freeman, Richard, 124
FreshDirect, 23
Fukao, Kyoji, 42
Future of Work, The (Handy), 182
Gal, Peter, 96
Gann, David, 197
Gaspar, Jess, 146
Gates, Bill, 222–23
Gates Foundation, 222–23
Gavious, Ilanit, 204
GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History (Coyle), 36
General Electric (GE), 51, 60–61, 184, 194, 204
General Theory of Employment (Keynes), 249n1
generational inequality, 121–22
Glaeser, Edward, 62, 79, 138–39, 142, 146, 147
globalization, 119; and growing market sizes, 34–35
Gold, Joe, 17
Goldfarb, Avi, 139
Goldin, Claudia, 228
Goldwyn, Sam, 229
goodwill, 251n9
Google, 67–68, 73, 87, 170, 209, 222; contestedness and, 115; Kaggle and, 152; scalability of, 101–2, 105; spillovers and, 110; venture capital and, 174, 175, 176, 177
Goos, Martin, 123
government: funding of training and education by, 228–30; investment by, 231–34, 234–36; and public procurement, 226–28; R&D spending by, 33–34, 55, 77, 223–24
Graham, John R., 168
“Great Doubling, The” (Freeman), 124
Great Invention: The Story of GDP, The (Masood), 36
Great Recession, 103, 108, 116
Great Stagnation, The (Cowen), 93
Greenstein, Shane, 139
gross domestic product (GDP), 3, 20, 42; difficulty in calculation of, 37, 244n3; government spending and, 55; human capital and, 54; and intangible investment, 35, 54, 117; IT investment and, 29–30; measurement of, 38, 40–41, 245n10; and tangible versus intangible investment, 25–27, 32
Groysberg, Boris, 194
Guerrero kidnapping, 74
Guvenen, Fatih, 129
gyms, commercial, 15–19
Haldane, Andrew, 168
Hall, Bronwyn, 62, 105–6, 211–12
Haltiwanger, John, 42
Hargreaves, Ian, 213
Harvard Business Review, 184
Harvey, Campbell, R., 168
Haskel, Jonathan, 42
Hayek, Friedrich von, 190
Hermalin, Benjamin, 199
Hewlett Packard, 170
high-intensity interval training (HIIT), 17
Hilber, Christian, 216
Home Depot, 194
Horizon 2020 program, 218
housing, 122, 128–29, 136–39; affordable, 148–49; creative class and, 215; planning of, 215–16
Howitt, Peter, 41
Hughes, Alan, 223
Hulten, Charles, 4–5, 43, 45, 48, 56
income, 119–20, 127–28; implications of an intangible economy for, 143; intangibles, firms, and inequality of, 130; intangibles’ effects on, 129–40; scalability and, 133–34
industrial commons, 84–85
Industrial Revolution, 126
industrial structure, 30–31
inequality, 118–19; accumulation of capital as reason for, 124–25; and differences in wages between firms, 129; of earnings, 120–21, 127–40; of esteem, 122–23, 129–40, 141–42; field guide to, 119–23; between the generations, 121–22; in an intangible-rich economy, 130–32, 135–35, 236–38; measures of, 119–20; of place, 122, 128–29, 136–39, 249n3; as result of improvements in technology, 123–24, 126–27; role of housing prices in, 122, 128–29, 136–39; standard explanations for, 123–25; symbolic analysts and, 133–34; and taxes, 139–40; trade and, 124; of wealth, 121, 128–40; worker screening and, 134–35
influence activities, 196
information, definition of, 64
infrastructure, 144, 157; definition of, 144–45; enabling character of, 145; hype and false promises surrounding, 145–47; institutional, 153–56; physical, 147–51; role of norms and standards in, 154–55; soft, 156; telecommunications, 151–52
innervation, 18
innovation districts, 215
innovative property, 43–45
Institution of Cleveland Engineers, 83
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 83
intangible economy, the, 182–85, 206–7; competition in, 185–87; cult of the manager and, 184, 188; financing of (see under financing); inequality in (see under inequality); investing in, 201–6; managing in, 188–200; public policy and (see under public policy); R&D in (see under R&D [research and development])
intangible myths, 135–36
intangibles, 10–11, 201–6, 239–42; accounting treatment of, 202–4; banking industry and, 162–66; changing business climate and, 31–34, 239–40; contestedness of, 87–88, 115, 132; cosmopolitanism versus conservatism and, 141–42; depreciation of, 56–57;
differences between tangibles and, 7–10, 58; effect on GDP growth of, 117; effects of institutional infrastructure on, 153; effects of low levels of investment in, 102–3; effects on income, wealth, and esteem inequality of, 129–40; emergent characteristics of, 86–88; equity markets and, 169–74; as explanation for secular stagnation, 101–16; financial architecture for, 218–21; the four S’s of, 8–10, 58, 61–63, 88; future challenges of measuring, 52–55; globalization and growing market sizes and, 34–35; in gyms, 15–19; and income inequality, 130–32; industrial structure and, 30–31; measurement of, 7–8, 46–49; mobile, 139–40, 248n4; properties of, 8–10; public procurement and, 226–28; as real investment or not, 49–52; reasons for growth of investment in, 27–35; research on, 5–7; and secular stagnation (see under secular stagnation); solving underinvestment in, 221–30; steady growth of investment in, 23–27; types of, 21–22, 43–46; venture capital as well-suited for, 175–77; worker screening and, 134–35. See also investment; scalability; spillovers; sunkenness; synergies
Intel, 174
intellectual property rights (IPRs), 45, 165, 175–76; clearer rules and norms about, 211–14
Intellectual Ventures, 152
interdisciplinarity, 85
interest rates, 92–93
International Monetary Fund (IMF), 93
investment: definition of, 19–21; examples of changing nature of, 15–19, 239–40; government, 231–34, 234–36; importance of, 3, 15; in intangibles, 3–5, 21–22, 49–52, 202–6, 239–42; measurement of, 36–43; and secular stagnation, 92–93
investors, choices for, 204–6
IPOs, 171–72
Israeli Statistical Bureau, 56
iTunes, 18
Jacobs spillovers, 138
Jaeger, Bastian, 141
Jaffe, Adam, 105–6
Jarboe, 54
Jefferson, Thomas, 72
John Deere, 76
Jones, Arthur, 16
Jones, Chad, 62
Joy, Bill, 84
Kaggle, 152
kaizen system, 51
Kantor, Shawn, 224
Kasnik, Ron, 204
Katz, Bruce, 215
Katz, Lawrence, 228
Kaufmann, Eric, 141
Kay, John, 161, 167, 169, 205–6
keiretsu system, 176–77
Keynes, John Maynard, 158, 160, 165, 249n1
Khan, Zorina, 75–76
Kleiner Perkins, 176
K-Mart, 187
knowledge: definition of, 63, 64; embodied versus disembodied, 64–65; propositional versus prescriptive, 64–65; scalability of, 66
knowledge-creating companies, 182–83
Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations (Warsh), 62
labor productivity, 96
land use policies, 214–17
Leadbeater, Charles, 4, 182, 183, 196
leadership, 197–99
left-behind communities, 122, 141–42
Lev, Baruch, 41, 43, 62, 185, 201–4, 220
Lewellen, Katharina, 171
Lindqvist, Erik, 131
Living on Thin Air (Leadbeater), 182
LMUK, 23
London View Management Framework, 216
Longitude Prize, 85
Lucas, Robert, 41
MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Opening Governance, 218
management: authority of, 189; and building a good organization, 194–97; in an intangible-rich world, 191–93; leadership and, 197–99; monitoring and, 188–91; roles of, 189–90
management consulting, 134–35
Manning, Alan, 123
Marrano, Mauro Giorgio, 42
Marshall-Arrow-Romer spillovers, 62, 138
Marx, Karl/Marxism, 126–27, 191, 243n3
Masood, Ehsan, 36
Massive Open Online Courses. See MOOCs
Matthews, Colin, 1–2
Maxjet, 162
Mazzucato, Mariana, 161, 168, 232
McDonald’s, 67
McKinsey & Company, 73, 135, 195
McKinsey Global Institute, 81
McLean, Andrew, 194
McNerney, James, 194
McNichols, Maureen, 204
measurement, of intangibles, 36–43, 46–49; and different types of investments, 43–46; future challenges in, 52–55
Mickey Mouse Curve, 78–79
Microsoft, 4–5, 7–8, 40, 175, 222–23; scalability of, 67, 102, 105
microwave ovens, 80, 81, 85, 239
Miles, David, 168
Mills, Les, 17–18, 21, 187, 239
Mills, Philip, 17
Mintzberg, Henry, 53
Miyagawa, Tsutomu, 42
mobile intangibles, 139–40, 248n4
Mokyr, Joel, 64
monitoring and management, 188–91
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), 230
Moore’s Law, 30
Mowery, David, 226
Mukai, Kentaro, 42
mule-spinners, 126–27
multi-factor productivity, 98–101
Nakamura, Leonard, 41
Napster, 18
Nardelli, Robert, 194
national accounts, 20–21, 43, 51
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), 38
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 154
Nature of Technology, The (Arthur), 80
neoliberalism, 119
network effects, 66
New Growth Theory, 66
Nightingale, Paul, 155
Nohria, Nitian, 194
Nokia, 104
nonexcludable ideas, 72
non-rivalry, 66
obliquity, 161
Ocado, 23
Occupy Wall Street, 120
O’Connor, Sarah, 183
Office for National Statistics (ONS), 46
Oliner, Steve, 39
open innovation, 83–84, 103–4, 110
openness to experience, 141–42
oral rehydration therapy (ORT), 66, 67
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 5, 38, 41, 43, 52; on employment strictness, 32; on productivity gap, 96; on quality adjustment figures, 40
organizational development, 50–51
Other People’s Money (Kay), 205
Oulton, Nicholas, 41
ownership, of intangibles, 211–14
Pasteur, Louis, 64
patents, 76, 153, 165, 213; blocking, 113–14
patent trolling, 78–79
Patientslikeme, 152
pensioners, 121–22
Pepsi Co., 49
Perez, Carlota, 146
Pets.com, 42
Pfizer, 31
Piketty, Thomas, 19, 118, 121; on capital accumulation, 124–25; on housing, 136–37, 139; on the income gap, 127–28
Pinch, The (Willetts),121
Pisano, Gary, 84–85
place, inequality of, 122, 128–29, 136–39, 249n3
populism, 122–23
Porter, Michael, 148
post-Fordist economy, 4
post-industrial future, 4
prescriptive knowledge, 64
Presley, Elvis, 61
Price, David, 129
producers, 20; and profitability explained, 97–101
production, 20–21
Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States, The (Machlup), 38
productivity: of intangibles, 28–30, 95–96; labor, 96; profits and, 97–101, 103–7; and the ratchet effect, 195–96; total factor, 96, 98, 102, 107–9
profitability, 97–101, 103–7, 247n2
profits, and secular stagnation, 94–96
propositional knowledge, 64
public investment: challenges of, 231–34, 234–36; and public procurement, 226–28; in R&D, 33–34, 55, 77, 223–24; in training and education, 228–30
public policy, 208–9; challenges for, 209–11, 231–34; and cultivating synergies, 214–18; and financing for intangible investments, 218–21; and government-funded investment in intangibles, 223–30; and intangible inequality, 236–38; and ownership of intangibles, 211–14
public procurement, 226–28
purchases of investment assets, 47
Purposeful Company project, 220
Quarterly Acquisitions and Disposals of Capital Assets Survey, 46
Radio Taxis, 82
Rajgopal, Shiva, 168
R&D (research and development): accounting treatment of, 202–4; cost of, 28, 41, 71;
definition of, 244n4; effect on GDP of, 38, 43; government spending on, 33–34, 55, 77, 223–24; in-house, 47; as intangible investment, 7, 22, 28, 43, 44, 49; investment in, 169–74; Microsoft’s investments in, 5; returns on, 29, 31; scalability and, 60; and spillovers, 72–73
ratchet effect, 195
Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity, The (conference), 38
Rauch, Ferdinand, 49
Raytheon, 80
rent-seeking, 113
Ridley, Matt, 81
Rise and Fall of American Growth, The (Gordon), 93–94
Roberts, Richard, 126
Roberts, Russell, 188
Rolls-Royce, 31
Romer, Paul, 41, 62, 63, 66, 147
Rosen, Sherwin, 130
Rowling, J. K., 131
rules and norms, 211–14
Salter, Ammon, 197
Sampson, Rachelle, 168
Sanders, Bernie, 223
Santa Fe Institute, 80
scalability, 9–10, 58, 60, 87, 101–2; definition of, 246n2; importance of, 67–68; income inequality and, 133–34; and increased investment, 110; and intangibles, 65–67; secular stagnation and, 103–5
Schreyer, Paul, 40
Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 16
Science: The Endless Frontier (Bush), 232
Second Machine Age, 30
secular stagnation, 91, 116; explanation for, 101–16; and intangibles investment, 102–3; profits and productivity differences and, 103–7; relationship of scalability and spillovers to, 109–16; symptoms of, 92–96
Shankar, Ravi, 61
Shi, Yuan, 168
Shih, Willy, 85
Shinoda, Yukio, 42
Sichel, Dan, 4, 5, 39, 42, 43, 45
single-factor productivity, 98–101
Six Sigma, 51
Skype, 217
Smil, Vaclav, 146
soft infrastructure, 156
solar energy, 85
South Wales Institution of Engineers, 83
speculation, 249n1
spending, 46–47, 54; on assets, 20; rent-seeking, 113
Spenser, Percy, 80
spillovers, 9, 58, 61, 87, 102; contestedness and, 87; importance of, 77–79; and intangibles, 72–77, 109–16; Jacobs, 138; Marshall-Arrow-Romer, 62, 138; physical infrastructure and, 147–51; secular stagnation and, 103–4; slowing TFP growth and, 107–9; venture capital and, 178
Spotify, 18
Stack Overflow, 29
Starbucks, 34, 52, 65, 140, 183, 195, 197; scalability of, 67
start-up ecosystems, 222
Statute of Anne (1709), 76
stock markets, 167–68, 205–6; IPOs and, 171–72
stock of intangible assets, 56–57
Summers, Larry, 93
sunkenness, 8–9, 58, 60, 87, 246n5; as characteristic of intangibles, 68–70; importance of, 70–72; venture capital and, 175–76
sustained advantage, 250n2
Sutton, John, 67
symbolic analysis, 132–34
synergies, 10, 58, 61, 87–88, 213; and intangible assets, 80–83, 83–86; among investments, 110; maximizing the benefits of, 214–18; physical infrastructure and, 147–51; venture capital and, 176
System of National Accounts, 20, 43, 51
systems innovation, 198
tacit knowledge, 65
tangible investments, differences between intangible and, 7–10, 58
taxes, 139–40, 235; and financing, 166, 219
technology: and cost of intangible investment, 28; inequality as result of improvements in, 123–24, 126–27; and productivity of intangibles, 28–30; and spillovers, 151–52
Thatcher, Margaret, 127
Theory of Moral Sentiments, The (Smith), 188
Thiel, Peter, 78, 175, 184–85, 187, 223
Toffler, Alvin, 4
Tonogi, Konomi, 42
total factor productivity (TFP), 96, 98, 102; poor performance of, 109–9, 114
trade and inequality, 124
trademarks, 76
training and education, 51–52, 170, 228–30
Trajtenberg, Manuel, 106
Trump, Donald, 122, 141–42, 143
trust, 156
Uber, 24, 28, 51; building of driver network by, 112–13; contestedness and, 115; legal travails of, 187; scalability of, 67, 101–2, 105; and synergies, 82; venture capital and, 174, 175
uncertainty, 87
Ure, Andrew, 126
Ur-Nammu, 75
US Federal Reserve, 4, 40, 41, 42, 165
US Food and Drug Administration, 154
Van Reenen, John, 82, 136, 173, 195
venture capital (VC) funding, 154–55, 161, 166, 174–75; problems with, 177–79; and intangibles, 175–77
Vlachos, Jonas, 131
Volcker, Paul, 165
von Mises, Ludwig, 38
von Wachter, Till, 129
Warsh, David, 62
Wasmer, Etienne, 128
Watt, James, 78
wealth, 119–20, 121; housing and, 122, 128–29, 136–39; inequality of, 139–40; intangibles’ effects on, 129–40
Wealth of Nations, The (Smith), 36
Weightless World, The (Coyle), 4
Weitzman, Martin L., 195
Welch, Jack, 184
Whalley, Alexander, 224
“What Is the U.S. Gross Investment in Intangibles? (At Least) One Trillion Dollars a Year!” (Nakamura), 41
Wikipedia, 217
Willetts, David, 121
Williamson, Oliver, 192
William the Conqueror, 2
worker screening and intangibles, 134–35
World Trade Organization (WTO), 31
Wyckoff, Frank, 56
Yahoo, 68
YouTube, 213
Zero to One (Thiel), 78, 185, 187
Zingales, Luigi, 173