Capitalisation of R&D in national accounts and planned methodological work Presentation to NTTS satellite event "Challenges in measuring productivity, growth and intangibles" 17 March 2017, Brussels
Intangibles included in ESA 2010 Intellectual property products (IPP): Research and development (new in ESA 2010) Mineral exploration and evaluation Computer software and databases Entertainment, literary or artistic originals Other intellectual property products
Treatment of R&D Commercial R&D: revenues from sales Own-account R&D by enterprises: Similar market prices Sum of costs with mark-up Own-account R&D by government, universities etc: sum of costs without mark-up Production of R&D leads to an asset (an "original") that can be used directly in subsequent production or licensed to others.
Sources and methods for R&D Manual on measuring R&D in ESA 2010: "Frascati manual" surveys Administrative data Balance of payments Business surveys Capital expenditure surveys Tax credit data Patents
ESA 2010 Data requirements Quarterly: total economy gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) in total IPP Annual: Breakdown of GFCF by industry (max 64) and asset Breakdown of stocks (gross and net) by industry (max 64) and asset Balance sheets for non-financial assets by sector (not all breakdowns compulsory and derogations exist)
Some basic data Average IPP GFCF in % of GDP: increase from 2.5% in 2000 to 3.3% in 2015 Share of R&D in total IPP: about 50% Share of software in total IPP: between 35-40% Average stock of IPP in % of total capital stock (gross): increase from 3.3% in 2000 to 4.5% in 2015 Share of R&D in total IPP: between 60-65% Share of software in total IPP: between 25-30%
Data improvements foreseen Filling gaps in country coverage and time series (some derogations are ending) In-depth review of quality and comparability of GFCF in R&D (in context of GNI Committee)
Eurostat/OECD Task Force on IPP 2017-2018 Develop further the practical guidance for estimating stocks and flows of IPP, in particular R&D and software Assess how economic location of IPP is/should be determined, in context of globalisation Principle of economic ownership
Longer-term developments Next SNA/ESA: 202x? SNA research agenda: broadening the fixed asset boundary to include other IPP (e.g. marketing assets) European Task Force on future of ESA also put this issue on the agenda Need to balance: stability of methodology and quality of data keeping up with economic trends and changing user needs
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