We investigate the relationship between intangible capital and productivity performance for an unbalanced panel data sample of about 14,000 Italian manufacturing firms over the 18 years 1982-1999. We take advantage of detailed (and rarely available) accounting information on balance sheets, current accounts and investment flows for different components of intangible. In fact, we can compare: (a) total intangibles; (b) what we call the “intangibles capitalised by us”, i.e. the intangible stock computed by capitalising the expenditures recorded in firms’ current accounts (this is the definition usually employed by the empirical literature of the issue); (c) the intangible capital as it is recorded in the firms’ detailed balanced sheets (a new definition of intangibles, in line with the Italian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, GAAP); (d) what we call “intellectual capital” (i.e. R&D expenditures; patenting and related costs); (e) what we call “customer capital” (i.e., advertising expenditures; trademarks and related costs). The theoretical framework is flexible. We experiment with a CES in total capital production function, as well as with the two nested Cobb-Douglas production functions (the multiplicative and the additive). Besides, we systematically investigate a variety of specification of the production functions, from the least constrained - non constant returns to scale - to the most constrained one - total factor productivity. Finally, we also assess the robustness of results by comparing different panel estimating techniques, alternative measures of intangible and tangible capitals, and different samples. Our results confirm that firms’ accounting data on intangible capital stocks has real informative content.
Exploring the Relationship between Intangible Capital and Productivity in Italian Manufacturing Firms
BONTEMPI, Maria Elena;
2007
Abstract
We investigate the relationship between intangible capital and productivity performance for an unbalanced panel data sample of about 14,000 Italian manufacturing firms over the 18 years 1982-1999. We take advantage of detailed (and rarely available) accounting information on balance sheets, current accounts and investment flows for different components of intangible. In fact, we can compare: (a) total intangibles; (b) what we call the “intangibles capitalised by us”, i.e. the intangible stock computed by capitalising the expenditures recorded in firms’ current accounts (this is the definition usually employed by the empirical literature of the issue); (c) the intangible capital as it is recorded in the firms’ detailed balanced sheets (a new definition of intangibles, in line with the Italian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, GAAP); (d) what we call “intellectual capital” (i.e. R&D expenditures; patenting and related costs); (e) what we call “customer capital” (i.e., advertising expenditures; trademarks and related costs). The theoretical framework is flexible. We experiment with a CES in total capital production function, as well as with the two nested Cobb-Douglas production functions (the multiplicative and the additive). Besides, we systematically investigate a variety of specification of the production functions, from the least constrained - non constant returns to scale - to the most constrained one - total factor productivity. Finally, we also assess the robustness of results by comparing different panel estimating techniques, alternative measures of intangible and tangible capitals, and different samples. Our results confirm that firms’ accounting data on intangible capital stocks has real informative content.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
