Abstract

Mainstream economists accept the basic idea of human capital. At least they accept its more tangible aspects, for example, the parts related to education and training. However, there is still much resistance to accepting the intangible aspects. Hence my writing on intangible capital has been aimed at providing explanations that overcome this lack of appreciation and understanding. In two books and a fair number of articles, I have developed the concept of organizational capital, and recently I have written a number of articles dealing with personal capital. The purpose of this essay is to provide an overview explanation of how intangible capital is important for understanding the functioning and growth of the economy. In doing this, it integrates more than two decades of my writing on these topics.