1. 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

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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%

10. 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)

11. 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

12. 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

13. Thank you for your attention