3rd Global INTAN-Invest Conference: Better Data for Better Policy
ROME, 7 - 8 May 2026 - Luiss Business School and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will host the 3rd Global INTAN-Invest Conference at Villa Blanc, Rome. Building on the success of the 2024 and 2025 conferences, this year’s event marks a major expansion in economic measurement with new estimates for additional countries. While the database currently tracks 32 major economies, this year the project expands with two additional ones: Canada and the Philippines.
The addition of the Phillippines is of great interest as it is an economy where services drive 61% of GDP, and as such, it offers a critical window into how knowledge-based capital fuels growth in emerging markets.
A central highlight will be the debut of the country’s first comprehensive intangible investment estimates, following the same methodology used for over 32 countries in the Global INTAN-Invest database. This new research reveals that Philippine intangible investments are growing far faster than the overall GDP, with National Account Intangible assets expanding approximately six times faster between 2011 and 2022. Notably, this growth rate significantly outpaces peers like India and Brazil.
The conference will also explore a major measurement gap: nearly 9 in 10 pesos of intangible investment in the Philippines currently fall outside official national accounts. This is the highest non-SNA share among all compared countries, highlighting the importance of capturing "hidden" assets to truly understand modern economic productivity.
Further, the 2026 edition will offer an opportunity to discuss about how knowledge-based capital drives "productivity convergence" across borders and the role of Artificial Intelligence.
The WIPO-Luiss Business School Partnership remains committed to addressing these informational asymmetries by providing harmonized data on intangible asset investment across both high-income and middle-income economies. Despite their transformative economic influence, traditional accounting frameworks have historically failed to capture the full scale and composition of these assets. Consequently, there is an imperative need for more robust, up-to-date statistics to facilitate evidence-based policymaking on a global scale.
The conference will serve as an opportunity for presenting new empirical evidence on intangible investment trends while advocating for the modernization of data collection and measurement frameworks to support innovation and sustainable growth. Through high-level thematic sessions and expert panels, the event will explore the challenges and opportunities inherent in this rapidly evolving field. Ultimately, the Global INTAN-Invest Conference provides an essential bridge between academic inquiry and high-level policy discussions, aiming to calibrate future economic strategies through a more precise understanding of the intangible drivers of the 21st-century economy.