In an interview with the Austin Statesman, ITIF President Rob Atkinson discusses how Innovation Economics is the best approach to economic growth.

In his recent OPEC 2.0 op-ed, Columbia University law professor Tim Wu offered his vision of a broadband policy by declaring the broadband market a “bandwidth cartel” that has gouged the public like the energy market. To remedy the situation, Wu advocated much more facilities-based competition, particularly through municipally-provided fiber-optic Internet service and called on the government to open up wireless radio spectrum to “liberate us from wires, cables, and rising prices”. While this bash-the-corporation rhetoric may have some populist appeal, Wu’s analysis is both factually and logically flawed.

The Internet has become a multi-service converged network that transports telephony, data, and video for millions of users. Some of those applications cause problems for other applications and this has prompted broadband providers like Comcast to proactively manage their network. Comcast will switch to a more accurate “Protocol Agnostic” network management system by year end. This FCC filing examines how P2P applications harm telephony applications even during low levels of utilization, how traffic shaping technologies can resolve these problems, and how Comcast’s new Protocol Agnostic network management system will work to protect VoIP services.

ITIF President Rob Atkinson discusses privacy in the digital era at Congressional Quarterly’s Forum on Technology.

There is disturbing evidence that America’s innovation lead is shrinking. Moreover, expanded support for basic research and science education, while important, will not be enough to respond to this challenge. Without a more robust, targeted, and explicit federal innovation policy, U.S. competitiveness will continue to slip and economic growth will lag. In a new report, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program argue that a critical step in that direction is the establishment of a National Innovation Foundation – a nimble, lean and collaborative entity devoted to supporting firms and other organizations in their innovative activities.

There have been surprisingly few attempts to catalogue what is known about the economic impact of information and communications technology (IT). In a new report, ITIF does just that, examining the impact of IT in five key areas: 1) productivity; 2) employment; 3) more efficient markets; 4) higher quality goods and services; and 5) innovation and new products and services. The report finds that the integration of IT into virtually all aspects of the economy and society is creating a digitally-enabled economy that is responsible for generating the lion's share of economic growth and prosperity, both here and abroad, including in developing nations. Importantly, the "IT engine" does not appear likely to run out of gas anytime soon and should power robust growth for at least the next decade, provided that policy makers take the right steps. Toward that end the report lays out five key public policy principles for driving digital prosperity: 1) give the digital economy its due; 2) actively encourage digital innovation and transformation of economic sectors; 3) use the tax code to spur IT investment; 4) encourage universal digital literacy and adoption; and 5) do no harm.

In a report sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, ITIF employs 26 indicators to assess the extent to which the 50 state economies are structured according to the tenets of the New Economy. The changing economic landscape requires state economies to be innovative, globally-linked, entrepreneurial and dynamic, with an educated workforce and all sectors embracing the use of information technology. The report, which updates and expands on the 2002 State New Economy Index, ranks the states accordingly. The five states ranking the highest in 2007 are, in order of rank, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, and California. With these measures as a frame of reference, the report then outlines the next generation of innovative state-level public policies needed to meet the challenges of the New Economy and boost incomes of all Americans.

The Past and Future of America’s Economy focuses on how periodic cycles of technological and economic change have fundamentally reordered the way we work, the organization of business and markets, and the role of government. It examines this process of change over the past 150 years and explores the responses of people and institutions. The book then analyzes today’s New Economy, including the new information technology system, and effects on markets, organizations, workers, and governance. Taking into account the historical record, the book discusses the shortcomings of prevailing liberal and conservative economic doctrines and lays out a new growth economics agenda aimed at maximizing the productivity and innovation-enhancing forces of the New Economy.