How Much does Sweden Invest in Intangible Assets?

In this paper I attempt to replicate for Sweden the Corrado, Hulten and Sichel (2006) and Marrano and Haskel (2006) working papers on spending on intangible assets in the US and the UK. Based on their measurement methods the total spending on intangibles in Sweden in 2004 was 277 billion SEK or 10.6 percent of total GDP. Based on total spending it can be estimated that total investment in intangibles was 227 billion or approximately two-thirds of the total investment in fixed capital in 2004. Thus, investment in intangibles was considerable in 2004. The corresponding figures for the UK and the US were 10.9 and 13.1 percent, respectively. Even though the measurement methods of intangibles must be further developed, it could be argued that intangibles in the future should be included in the Swedish national accounts. Financial support has been provided by the COINVEST project, www.coinvest.org.uk, funded by the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme, Theme 9, Socio-economic Science and Humanities, grant number 217512. * I am grateful for useful comments and suggestions from Jonathan Haskel, Henrik Jordahl, and Annarosa Pesole and participants at the COINVEST seminar in Mannheim and seminar at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics in Stockholm. Financial support from the European Commission is also gratefully acknowledged. † Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden, Phone: +468-6654599, Fax: +46-736-938408.