Competitiveness

Innovation, including the diffusion of information technology throughout the economy, is key to boosting productivity, which in turn is at the heart of increasing living standards.

Cameron Calls for “Modern Industrial Strategy” to Help Britain Win Race for Global Innovation Advantage

November 13, 2012
| Blogs & Op-eds

Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech shows the path forward, particularly for conservatives and Republicans in the United States, for how a stronger national government role is critical to winning the race for global innovation advantage.

Winning the Race 2012 Memos: Overcoming Barriers

November 5, 2012
| Reports

Since the economy has still not fully recovered from the Great Recession, the challenge for the next administration will be two-fold: restoring U.S. global innovation leadership and driving productivity growth. To achieve robust job growth, the United States needs a growing and competitive “traded sector engine” powered by innovation. America also needs strong productivity growth because it is the surest way of addressing the fiscal challenge. ITIF’s Winning the Race memos one through nine laid out a specific and actionable list of policy recommendations to help America win the innovation race, in areas from tax and trade to digital networks and science. But the real challenge is implementing needed policies. This memo discusses the challenges, principally in the realm of ideas and worldviews, that act as barriers to implementation and proposes one idea to overcome them.

TechElect’s Six Steps to Jobs, Prosperity, and Innovation Sets the Right Agenda

November 2, 2012
| Blogs & Op-eds

In the coming weeks, a plethora of reports will emerge enumerating the most urgent priorities for the next Administration and Congress to address. TechElect’s Six Steps to Jobs, Prosperity, and Innovation cuts through the thicket and succinctly highlights the six key steps that should be the starting point for policymakers after the November 6 election.

Three Warning Signs America is Losing the Global Clean Energy Race

October 22, 2012
| Blogs & Op-eds

Why would we automatically expect that America can win in clean energy when it’s losing in so many others? The answer is: we shouldn’t. For all the gains made in clean energy over the last few years, its future looks ominous. To say otherwise is disingenuous. Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. America losing the global clean energy race is not set in stone. The United States must triple its investments in innovation to make clean energy cheap and competitive everywhere. It must aggressively fight international green mercantilism to level the playing field. And it must implement a cohesive national manufacturing strategy that will help all manufacturing sectors not just clean energy.

The Presidential Debate We Really Need

October 22, 2012
| Blogs & Op-eds

We need a real debate about the proper role of the government as a partner to help the private sector in winning the race for global innovation advantage. Stale debates about "makers and takers" and "who made this or that" miss the key issue: how would each candidate propose to structure federal policy so it helps our businesses win in intensely competitive global markets? This means helping businesses field a workforce with skills second to none and supporting science and technology so firms have access to the flow of innovation to help them to get to market with globally competitive products. While America has fallen behind and lost our game, it's still possible we can get back in the race and create the millions of well-paying jobs that come with winning. But only if Washington takes these challenges seriously and examines the global race closely. And that begins with an honest and on point debate about how to win the innovation race.

A Debate: Is the American Economy in Decline?

October 18, 2012 - 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
5 Floor Conference Room
Washington
DC
20004

Is the Great Recession and ensuing anemic recovery a result of long-run structural weaknesses that signal permanent American economic decline unless dramatic steps are taken to reverse it? Read more »

A Debate: Is the American Economy in Decline?

October 18, 2012
Debate exploring two competing interpretations and examines what the United States needs to do to restore robust economic growth.

Is the Great Recession and ensuing anemic recovery a result of long-run structural weaknesses that signal permanent American economic decline unless dramatic steps are taken to reverse it? Or should it be seen as a typical but severe downturn caused by a financial crisis from which the the United States will recover in due time and return to a healthy long-term economic and jobs growth trajectory? Getting the right answers to these questions is critically important for policymakers and goes to the heart of the economic issues being debated in the Presidential election. Read more »

Real GDP growth rate per working-age person between 2000-2010 was higher in Japan than in the United States.

While the aging population in Japan means its GDP growth will be relatively slower, the fact is Japan's per-worker income growth-the key measure of economic success-exceeded the United States' in the last decade. It's time for the "Washington Economic Consensus" to stop writing off Japan as an economic basket case and recognize that the U.S. economy continues to face real challenges.

Is the U.S. Losing the Global Innovation Advantage Race?

October 9, 2012
Rob Atkinson discusses what he believes is the real reason for the financial collapse and Great Recession.

Rob Atkinson discusses what he believes is the real reason for the financial collapse and Great Recession, as explained in Innovation Economics, with Fox News anchor Steve Brown.