Developed by the Technology Administration of the Department of Commerce, the science and technology indicators monitor and report on various indicators in the fifty states. These indicators include input measures that stimulate science and technology like funding in flows, human resources, capital investments and business assistance; and outcome measures that report on the high-tech intensity of the state's business base, and other outcome measures (e.g., patents, earnings, workforce employment and safe investments). These reports are made available to states to consult for their economic development plans, and also to investors and the general public.

Similar to the science and technology indicators, the Progressive Policy Institute developed the New Economy Index, which compares between states according to a number of measures including the level of education of the workforce, the numbers employed in high-tech sectors, the num¬ber of patents issued, and others. These findings are used to influence the formulation of economic policies.

A private company that developed indicators to report on the technological prowess of companies by analyzing patent data, CHI has created a number of indicators to measure patent citations and technology cycle times, and to create the innovation index. The same measures are developed for countries in specific technological areas. These indicators are used by many analysts and investors to compare between various companies.

A method developed by Baruch Lev, New York University professor of accounting and finance, and Marc Bothwell, portfolio manager at Credit Suisse Asset Management to estimate overall return on IC, or what the authors call knowledge assets. The method is based on a number of assumptions. First, that physical and financial assets produce an annual after-tax return of 7 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. Second, the remaining earnings after discounting those related to tan¬gible assets can be attributed to knowledge assets with a discount rate of 10.5 percent. Calculating return on knowledge assets, the method uses an average of actual earnings for three past years and stock analysts' forecasts of earnings for three years into the future. The authors use this method to evaluate the knowledge capital of companies and industries. Though this method is based on the simple formula used by IC theorists (i.e., Intellectual Capital = Market capitalization - net book value), it adds another layer of accuracy. Similar methods of calculation include Tobin's Q formula by Nobel Prize winner James Tobin of Yale University, and NCI Research Calculated Intangible Value (CIV) formula.