Study Links Two-thirds of America's Large Businesses' Value to Intellectual Property

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, NGO World Growth
 released new research by Dr. Robert Shapiro, former Undersecretary of
 Commerce to President Clinton, which finds that two-thirds of the value of
 America's large businesses springs from intellectual property (IP),
 especially patents and trademarks.
     Using National Science Foundation data on industry investments in
 research and development activities that produce IP, Shapiro and co-author
 Nam Pham determine a broad range of positive economic effects, pointing to
 the pharmaceutical industry as the most IP-intensive industry.
     In the study, titled Economic Effects of Intellectual Property --
 Intensive Manufacturing in the United States, Shapiro and Pham calculate
 the concrete economic benefits of IP to the U.S. economy and find that IP-
 intensive jobs produce greater value added per employee, pay higher average
 wages, and have stronger records in job creation than those that are less
 IP- intensive:
       -- IP-intensive industries produce 72 percent more value added per
          employee than non-IP-intensive industries
 
       -- The average employee in IP-intensive industries earns 44 percent more
          than non-IP-intensive industries
 
       -- IP-intensive industries create jobs at a rate 140 percent higher than
          non-IP-intensive industries, excluding computers/electronics.
     Alan Blinder, former economic advisor to President Clinton and Vice
 Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in his
 forward to the study writes, "As Robert Shapiro and Nam Pham remind us in
 this fascinating study, an increasing share of the market valuation of the
 top U.S. companies is now apparently based on 'intangibles' ('ideas,' if
 you will), rather than on companies' stockpiles of physical assets. They
 reckon that this share of value rose from about 25 percent in 1984 to about
 64 percent in 2005 -- a huge increase in just two decades."
     About World Growth
     World Growth is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established
 with an educational and charitable mission to expand the education,
 information and other resources available to disadvantaged populations to
 improve their health and economic welfare. At World Growth, we embrace and
 celebrate the new age of globalization and the power of free trade to
 eradicate poverty and improve living conditions for people in the
 developing world. For more information on World Growth, visit
 http://www.worldgrowth.org. To view the complete study, please visit
 http://www.the-value-of-IP.org. For media inquiries, please email
 media@worldgrowth.org or call (866) 467 7200.
 
 

SOURCE World Growth