Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330916 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Hamburg Discussion Papers in International Economics No. 20
Publisher: 
University of Hamburg, Department of Economics, Privatdozentur in Economics, Hamburg
Abstract: 
Intangible assets have increasingly been identified as a main source of productivity gains. Since the pioneering work by Corrado, Hulten, and Sichel (2005), empirical research has largely focused on macro and industry-level studies, while firm-level studies have often been confined to a limited set of intangible assets, especially Research and Development (R&D). This paper employs a unique firm-level panel database that contains information on four types of intangible assets: R&D, software & databases (S&D), firm-specific human capital (HC), and brand value (BV). For R&D, we find much lower productivity returns than for S&D and HC. R&D even loses significance once controlling for other intangibles, except for high-tech manufacturing. In contrast to R&D, we find that S&D and HC tend to be the primary drivers of productivity gains, particularly in services. Our findings have implications for research policy, suggesting a stronger focus on supporting investment in non-R&D intangibles, including S&D and HC.
Subjects: 
Non-R&D intangibles
Productivity
R&D
Digitalisation
Firm-specific human capital
Brand value
Firm-level panel data
JEL: 
E22
O33
O38
D24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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