American Economic Review Vol. 104 No. 5 2014

The Value and Ownership of Intangible Capital

Andrea L. Eisfeldt¹; Dimitris Papanikolaou²

¹ Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (e-mail: ) · ² Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208 (e-mail: )

Abstract

Intangible capital which relies on essential human inputs, or 'organization capital,' presents a unique challenge for measurement. Organization capital cannot be fully owned by firms' financiers, because it is partly embodied in key labor inputs. Instead, cash flows must be shared with key talent and thus neither book nor market values will fully capture its value. Measurement of organization capital requires a model featuring these unique property rights. We use accounting data along with a simple example of such a model to measure the fraction of the US capital stock which is missing from book and market values.

DOI

10.1257/aer.104.5.189

Volume

104

Issue

5

Pages

189-194

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓