OECD, 2013. New sources of growth: Knowledge-based capital. OECD Publishing, Paris.

Investment and growth in OECD economies is increasingly driven by intangible or knowledge-based capital (KBC). In many OECD countries, firms now invest as much or more in KBC as they do in physical capital such as machinery, equipment and buildings. This shift reflects a variety of long-term economic and institutional transformations in OECD economies.

The rise of KBC creates new challenges for policymakers, for business and for the ways in which economic activity is measured. Many policy frameworks and institutions are still best suited to a world in which physical capital drove growth. New thinking is needed to update a range of framework conditions – from tax and competition policies to corporate reporting and intellectual property rights.

To address the rise of KBC – and contributing to the OECD’s work on new approaches to economic challenges – the OECD has embarked on a two-year horizontal project entitled « New Sources of Growth: Intangible Assets ».

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