Wealth measurement and the role of built asset investment : an empirical comparison

Ruddock, L; Ruddock, S

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of investment in built assets in the achievement of economic growth as part of a wealth measurement approach and to undertake an analysis of the relative importance of such investment as part of a country’s overall capital asset portfolio.
Research Approach Panel data on capital asset investment are used to compare groups of countries at different stages of development.
Statistical Sources
Data sets on investment and capital levels from the Penn World Tables (PWT) 9.0.
Population and GDP data are taken from the same source and the UN Statistics Division. World Bank reports provide data on countries’ income group classification.

Findings There is confirmation of the view that, as economies grow, a pattern of investment based on developing a different structure of capital asset portfolio occurs. Investment patterns similar to those found in advanced countries arise as low income countries move to higher income classification groups even though built assets remain the most valuable capital asset group.


Value
The study provides time series evidence on the nature of changing capital investment patterns in countries’ economies and demonstrates the value of a wealth measurement approach.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 2, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jan 8, 2019
• Publication Date: Jun 17, 2019
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 8, 2019
• Journal: Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
• Print ISSN: 0969-9988
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-232X
• Publisher: Emerald
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 766-778
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-07-2018-0290
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-07-2018-0290
• Related Public URLs: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/ecam