Capitalism without capital : the rise of the intangible economy /
Jonathan Haskel, Stian Westlake.
- 288 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm
This title provides a comprehensive account of the growing dominance of the intangible economy. 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, R&D, and software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, 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. This book shows that the growing importance of intangible assets has also played a role in some of the big economic changes of the last decade.