ITIF Senior Analyst Stephen Ezell’s article, "America and the World: We’re Number 40!", in September’s Democracy Journal examines how the United States has lost its lead in developing innovation policies (and thus risks losing leadership in high-technology innovation), what other countries have done to capture this lead from the United States, and how we can get it back.

The ideal fiscal stimulus measure not only creates jobs and drives economic activity in the short run but also boosts quality of life and economic growth in the medium and long run. Support for scientific research in the stimulus package accomplishes both goals. In this report, ITIF finds that spurring an additional $20 billion investment in our national research infrastructure will create or retain approximately 402,000 American jobs for one year.

Many forward-thinking countries have made innovation-led economic development a centerpiece of their national economic strategies during the past decade. While many nations have taken the innovation challenge to heart and put in place a host of policies to spur innovation, the United States has done little, consequently falling behind in innovation policies and risking falling behind in innovation performance as well. This article compares U.S. innovation policy to that of other leading industrialized countries across five topic areas: programs to establish civilian technology and innovation promotion agencies; services innovation initiatives; national levels of R&D funding; tax incentives for research and development; and policies regarding high-skill immigration.

The only way to solve the global warming problem is through support of a dramatically expanded and improved CO2 reduction R&D program.

This blog post reviews findings of a recent academic study on the low numbers of women in advanced mathematics programs, citing a need “to make math cool again” to spur U.S. competitiveness, because now doing mathematics for fun is “deemed uncool within the social context of USA middle and high schools…and can lead to social ostracism.”

In today’s economy, innovation – the development and adoption of new products and services, more efficient production process­es, and new business models – is the most important factor driv­ing increases in American standards of living. By putting innovation at the center of our nation’s economic policies, we can ensure robust economic growth and rising standards of living for all Americans. ITIF’s Innovation Economics Agenda for the Next Administration lays out eight key recommendations to spur innovation-led economic growth in the United States. Amongst others, these measures include: significantly expanding the federal R&D tax credit, allowing companies to expense new investments in IT in the first year, creating a National Innovation Foundation, and reforming patent and trade policies.