The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the government department responsible for calculating the “Gross Domestic Product” (GDP) and other figures, recently changed its GDP formula to explicitly account for intellectual property.
This is great news. Intellectual property is a significant source of revenue and economic benefit to the US. It is a significant portion of our exports to other countries.
I admit that I do not understand global economic statistics enough to know whether the figures used by the BEA are accurate or account for enough intellectual property in the economy. But I do know that this must be an improvement over the prior calculations.
The inclusion of intellectual property raised the overall GDP by more than 3% – or the size of the New Jersey economy according to the NY Times
According to a Commerce Department study in 2012 entitled “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus,” intellectual property (IP)-intensive industries support at least 40 million jobs and contribute more than $5 trillion dollars to, or 34.8 percent of, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP)!
On April 11, 2012, the U.S. Commerce Department released a comprehensive report, entitled “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus,” which found that intellectual property (IP)-intensive industries support at least 40 million jobs and contribute more than $5 trillion dollars to, or 34.8 percent of, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
