Public intangibles: the public sector and economic growth in the SNA
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Corrado, C
Haskel, J
Jona-Lasinio, C
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper sets out a framework for analyzing the impact of public investments on industry-
level productivity and economic growth. The concept of capital in the public sector is broad-
ened from that which is mostly tangible (e.g., physical infrastructure) to that which also
includes intangibles and long-lasting societal assets. For the analysis of public investments,
we find that in addition to expanding the asset boundary, national accounts also need to: (a)
impute a net return to government and other nonmarket capital—or provide industry-level
data by institutional sector of origin, allowing researchers to do so; (b) include all public
payments to industry in industry-level gross operating surplus (i.e., all subsidies, production
and product, and the annuity value of investment grants); and (c) provide crosswalks for
key components of government expenditure by function of government (e.g., public funds for
extramural R&D or worker training) to kind-of-activity classifications used for industries.
level productivity and economic growth. The concept of capital in the public sector is broad-
ened from that which is mostly tangible (e.g., physical infrastructure) to that which also
includes intangibles and long-lasting societal assets. For the analysis of public investments,
we find that in addition to expanding the asset boundary, national accounts also need to: (a)
impute a net return to government and other nonmarket capital—or provide industry-level
data by institutional sector of origin, allowing researchers to do so; (b) include all public
payments to industry in industry-level gross operating surplus (i.e., all subsidies, production
and product, and the annuity value of investment grants); and (c) provide crosswalks for
key components of government expenditure by function of government (e.g., public funds for
extramural R&D or worker training) to kind-of-activity classifications used for industries.
Date Issued
2017-11-29
Date Acceptance
2017-01-19
Citation
Review of Income and Wealth, 2017, 63 (s2), pp.s355-s380
ISSN
1475-4991
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
s355
End Page
s380
Journal / Book Title
Review of Income and Wealth
Volume
63
Issue
s2
Copyright Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Corrado, C., Haskel, J. and Jona-Lasinio, C. (2017), Public Intangibles: The Public Sector and Economic Growth in the SNA. Review of Income and Wealth, 63: S355–S380., which has been published in final form at https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12325. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Grant Number
612774
Subjects
Social Sciences
Economics
Business & Economics
Economic growth
Intangible capital
National accounts
Non-market sector
Public sector
Public goods
INVESTMENT
1401 Economic Theory
1402 Applied Economics
Publication Status
Published