ABSTRACT

This paper examines how intangible assets contribute to firm-level productivity in the small open economies of Denmark and Finland from 2000 to 2013. We examine whether the role of intangible assets has changed over time, from the period of fairly stable growth prior to the crisis in 2008 to the more difficult period of recovery afterwards where intangible capital deepening decreased in 2008–2013 in many European countries. The productivity analysis is conducted in two stages. First, we derive total factor productivity (TFP), and second, we estimate the effects of intangible assets on total factor productivity. Our approach for measuring intangible assets is based on occupational classifications in a linked employer–employee dataset. We construct measures for three types of intangibles: broad R&D assets (R&D), organizational assets (OC) and information and communication technology assets (ICT). In both countries, the TFP effects of broad R&D increase slightly in the period after the crisis. For Finland, we also find that the TFP effects of OC increase after the crisis, while Denmark experienced a considerable increase in OC assets after financial crises in intangible intensive industries such as information, education and health industries, where productivity is lower.

摘要

本文研究了 2000 年至 2013 年丹麦和芬兰的小型开放经济体中无形资产如何提高企业生产率。我们研究了无形资产的作用是否随着时间的推移发生了变化，从危机前的相当稳定的增长时期开始从 2008 年到随后更加困难的复​​苏时期，许多欧洲国家的无形资本深化在 2008-2013 年有所下降。生产率分析分两个阶段进行。首先，我们推导出全要素生产率（TFP），其次，我们估计无形资产对全要素生产率的影响。我们衡量无形资产的方法基于链接的雇主-雇员数据集中的职业分类。我们为三类无形资产制定措施：广泛的研发资产 (R&D)，组织资产 (OC) 和信息和通信技术资产 (ICT)。在这两个国家，广泛研发的 TFP 效应在危机后的时期略有增加。对于芬兰，我们还发现 OC 的 TFP 效应在危机后增加，而丹麦在信息、教育和健康等生产率较低的无形密集型行业发生金融危机后，OC 资产大幅增加。