Review by Choice Review
Haskel (Imperial College London) and Westlake (Nesta) investigate the rise of intangible assets, such as design, R&D, and software, relative to tangible assets, such as machinery and buildings, and the consequences for the economy. The first part discusses how intangible assets become an integrated part of today's business, how they should be measured, and how the rise of intangible assets is more scalable, how their costs are more likely to be sunk, and how they can have spillovers and synergies with each other. The second part discusses consequences of intangible assets in the economy, secular stagnation, and the rise of inequality. Haskel and Westlake move on to financing intangibles and the role of managers and leaders, and finally consider public policy in an intangible economy. The title is an eye-opener for readers interested in the new economy that is characterized by intangible assets. This title starts excellent conversations on how to correctly account for intangible assets and how to face the challenges involved. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. --Dong Li, University of Texas at Dallas
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A searching, technical examination of the arrival of a kind of economy in which much of what is produced is abstract, symbolic, and speculative.The economies of old, write London-based economists Haskel and Westlake, were founded on things that were actually manufactured and grown. Even if "the idea that the economy might come to depend on things that were immaterial was an old one," the actual fact of such an economy has eluded precise description. For example, we lack the ability to measure certain aspects of a company such as Microsoft, whose market value a decade ago was $250 billion, but its physical basisthe value of its properties and equipmentwas only about 1 percent of that. The "shift to intangible investment" has widespread consequences: it plays out in long-term inequality, infrastructure development, taxation, and other areas. It furthers what the authors call "secular stagnation" by allowing scalable firms to emerge that engulf and overpower competitors, as opposed to enhancing an economy based on the "spillover effects" of a high tide that raises all boats. The authors examine some interesting sociological points along the wayfor one, that supporters of Brexit and other populist movements "score low on tests for the psychological trait of openness to experience," such openness being key to symbolic analysis of the sort that advanced, intangible economies rely on. However, for the most part, their argument is based on hard economic data and trends, such as companies' buying back stock in order to become private again, which allows them to operate without the same transparency required of public operations. In a closed economy, investing becomes more challenging, as does corporate financing; the authors examine trends in that direction as well.An economics degree isn't required to follow the authors' nuanced argument, but it would surely help. Recommended reading for venture capitalists and investment counselors. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
