Abstract

At least since the 1980s, a consensus has emerged among economists and policy makers on the central role of knowledge production and accumulation as a key stimulus to economic growth (Romer 1990). In the new knowledge based economy, intangible investment in the production of knowledge – through the funding of R&D and human capital formation – plays a crucial economic role in order to increase the economy’s productive resources, just as physical capital did in the old industrial economy.