Institution

Eurostat

Year

2014

Level

Intermediate to advanced

Abstract

Chapter Three of the first edition of 2014 focuses on ‘intangible’ goods and assets, as these are inherently difficult to describe or define. For two centuries it has been common practice for economists to describe services as being intangible or immaterial goods even though they have nothing in common. Now, there is tendency to confuse intangibles with services. However, intangibles and services have become far too important in modern economies to be systematically misclassified. The paper proposes a new definition for intangible goods and goes on to examine their most important economic characteristics. In the 2008 SNA, the term ‘intangible fixed asset’ was replaced by the term ‘intellectual property product’, but this was simply a renaming exercise and not a substantive change. This Chapter proposes a very specific definition.