Has the importance of intangibles really grown? And if so, why?

Abstract Intangibles are ideas or knowledge about the natural (physical and biological) and socio‐cultural worlds that enable people to better accomplish their goals, both in primitive societies and in modern economies. Intangibles include basic research and technology improvements, as well as knowledge to better organise exchange and production, and over time become inextricably embedded in improved tangible assets. Accounting intangibles are legally excludable subsets of economic intangibles, which in turn are the subsets of cultural intangibles that can be used to create tradable goods or services. Because economic intangibles are cumulative, synergistic, and frequently inseparable from other tangible assets and/or economic intangibles not owned by any single entity, it is usually futile to estimate a separate accounting value for individual intangibles. However, the income that intangibles together generate provides useful inputs for equity valuation, and voluntary non‐financial disclosures could be informative for this purpose.