Friday, February 2nd, 2018 IPL Speaker Series | Capitalism Without Capital

DateTimeLocation
Friday, February 2, 201812:00PM - 2:00PMSeminar Room 208N, 1 Devonshire Place

Series

Innovation Policy Lab Seminar Series

Description

Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy
Early in the twenty-first century, the major developed economies began to invest more in intangible assets, like design, branding, R&D, and software, than in tangible assets, like machinery, buildings, and computers. For all sorts of businesses, from tech firms and pharma companies to coffee shops and gyms, the ability to deploy assets that one can neither see nor touch is increasingly the main source of long-term success. But this is not just a familiar story of the so-called new economy. Drawing from his new book (with Jonathan Haskel), Capitalism without Capital, Stian Westlake will show how the growing importance of intangible assets has also played a role in some of the big economic changes of the last decade. The rise of intangible investment is an underappreciated cause of phenomena from economic inequality to stagnating productivity. Stian Westlake will present three possible scenarios for what the future of an intangible world might be like, and outline how managers, investors, and policymakers can exploit the characteristics of an intangible age to grow their businesses, portfolios, and economies.

Contact

Sole Fernandez (sole.fernandez@utoronto.ca)
416-946-8912

Speakers

Stian Westlake
Stian Westlake is currently Advisor to the Science, Innovation and Universities Minister (UK) and Senior Fellow at Nesta, the UK’s national foundation for innovation. Previously, he was Executive Director of Policy and Research at Nesta leading a team developing new insights into innovation policy and practice. Prior to that, he worked in social venture capital at the Young Foundation and spent five years at McKinsey & Company in Silicon Valley and London, where he provided strategic advice to a range of private and public sector clients, focusing on health care, technology and corporate and infrastructure finance.

Jonathan Haskel
Jonathan Haskel is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London and Director of the Doctoral Programme at the School. He was previously Professor and Head of Department at the Department of Economics, Queen Mary, University of London. He has taught at the University of Bristol and London Business School and been a visiting professor at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, USA; Stern School of Business, New York University, USA; and the Australian National University. Between 2013 and 2016, Professor Haskel was an elected member of the Council of the Royal Economic Society and between November 2012 and December 2015, a member of the "Research, Innovation, and Science Policy Experts" (RISE) high level group advising the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation, and Science on policy.

Main Sponsor

Innovation Policy Lab

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