Investment in capital is important for economic growth. But capital is not just physical assets – firms also invest in ‘intangible assets', such as knowledge, firm specific skills and better ways of doing business. Some commentators have suggested that structural and technological changes in...

This Productivity Commission staff working paper (by Paula Barnes) examines sectoral investment in intangible assets in Australia following on from a previous paper on an examination of intangibles assets in the market sector as a whole. It highlights some significant issues relating to the...

This Productivity Commission staff working paper (by Paula Barnes) examines sectoral investment in intangible assets in Australia following on from a previous paper on an examination of intangibles assets in the market sector as a whole. It highlights some significant issues relating to the...

Australia's surge in productivity growth in the 1990s fuelled an acceleration in growth in total income and average income (income per person in Australia). Annual average income growth accelerated from 1.4 per cent in the 1970s and 1980s to 2.5 per cent in the 1990s. Faster productivity growth...

Skill and Australia's Productivity Surge examines the changing demand for skills and the effect of increased skill on productivity growth. It finds that Australia's productivity surge post 1993-94 was mainly due to factors other than the increase in the skill of the workforce