How Innovative Is China in the ChemicalsIndustry?
China is leading in chemical production, especially basic chemicals. And while it is currently lagging behind on innovation—especially in more complex fine chemicals—all signs suggest it will catch up with the global leaders within the next decade or two.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationWhy Congress Should Enact a Mileage-Based User Fee for Heavy Trucking
With the gradual shift from internal combustion to electric vehicles, it is only a matter of time before the nation will have to replace gas taxes with a vehicle miles traveled system to pay for road maintenance. The most sensible way to start would be with heavy trucks.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationWhy the United States and EU Should Seize the Moment to Cooperate on Cybersecurity Labeling for IoT Devices
The United States and European Union should work through the Trade and Technology Council to align their respective cybersecurity labeling programs for the Internet of Things rather than allowing IoT security to become another technical barrier to trade and technology cooperation.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationNo, Market Leaders Are Not Driving Declines in Innovation and Economic Dynamism
A report by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) concludes that declining knowledge diffusion is the underlying cause of declining business dynamism. However, its theoretical model is based on flawed assumptions, while its mathematical model has methodological issues.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationHow Federal Funding for Basic Research Spurs Clean Energy Discoveries the World Needs: Eight Case Studies
We need new breakthroughs in clean energy technology to address climate change. Recent discoveries in areas such as nuclear fusion and biofuels illustrate how government investment in early-stage research is a critical part of the process.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationHow Innovative Is China in the RoboticsIndustry?
China does not yet appear to be leading in robotic innovation, but its domestic production and adoption are growing rapidly, and the Chinese government has prioritized the industry. It is likely only a matter of time before Chinese robotics companies catch up to the leading edge.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationNot Again: Why the United States Can’t Afford to Lose Its Biopharma Industry
America’s leadership in advanced-technology industries can never be taken for granted, as evidenced by its losses in telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, televisions, solar panels, and chemicals. Policymakers must recognize what went wrong in those cases to avoid a similar industrial decline in the biopharmaceutical industry.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationSharing Without Daring: Dynamic Spectrum Sharing With Certainty ofAccess
The dichotomy between dynamic spectrum sharing and exclusive licensing is a false one. Reliable, full-power access is possible within a dynamic sharing framework if the FCC auctions super-priority rights to commercial users.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationHow Congress Can Foster a Digital SingleMarket in America
In areas ranging from data privacy to content moderation, states are creating patchworks of regulation that confuse consumers, complicate compliance, and undermine the digital economy. It’s time for Congress to step in and establish a consistent national approach to digital policy.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationAssessing India’s Readiness to Assume aGreater Role in Global Semiconductor Value Chains
India has the potential to play a much more significant role in global semiconductor value chains, provided the government upholds its investment policies, maintains a conducive regulatory and business environment, and avoids measures that create unpredictability.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationUser Safety in AR/VR: Protecting Teens
Teens are some of the enthusiastic early adopters of augmented and virtual reality devices and the metaverse. Their relative lack of maturity and naivete makes them more susceptible to safety threats than adults. Yet, current policy proposals are unlikely to make AR/VR safer and would make online experiences worse overall for both teens and adults.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationAssessing the Dominican Republic’s Readiness to Play a Greater Role in Global Semiconductor and PCB Value Chains
The Dominican Republic is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, offers perhaps the most attractive business environment in Latin America, and is a leading candidate for nearshored investments in advanced manufacturing activity—particularly for electronics such as printed circuit boards (PCBs) and the assembly, test, and packaging (ATP) of semiconductors.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationRethinking Concerns About AI’s Energy Use
Concerns about the energy used by digital technologies are not new. With the recent surge in interest in artificial intelligence, people are once again raising questions about the energy use of an emerging technology.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationNational Developmentalism: The Alternative to Neoliberalism and Neo-New Dealism
Neoliberalism’s deficiencies are clear. To address the challenges America now faces, policymakers should adopt the doctrine of national developmentalism and not allow economic policy to swing back toward a revised New Dealism, as it is now doing.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationA Realist Approach to Hydrogen
Clean hydrogen is expensive to produce, difficult to transport, and a second- or third-best clean energy solution in almost all proposed markets. To help drive the global green transition, a realist approach to hydrogen policy must address all these practical challenges.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationThe Hamilton Index, 2023: China Is Running Away With Strategic Industries
China now dominates the strategically important industries in ITIF’s Hamilton Index, producing more than any other nation in absolute terms and more than all but a few others in relative terms. Its gains are coming at the expense of the United States and other G7 and OECD economies, and time is running short for policymakers to mount an industrial comeback.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationMission Innovation, Phase 2: More Failed Aspirations to Fight Climate Change
Twenty-three countries plus the EU pledged in 2015 to double their investments in clean energy RD&D by 2020. Only one met that goal. Undeterred, they announced a new set of pledges in 2021. Two years later, most are still woefully underinvesting in clean energy RD&D.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationDelay Government: How Technology Can Fix Slow Federal Service Delivery
The U.S. government offers slow, outdated services. Congress and federal agencies should invest in digital technology and modernize their approach to service delivery to transform the current delay government into a modern, fast, digital-first government.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationGood and Bad Reasons for Allocating Spectrum to Licensed, Unlicensed, Shared, and Satellite Uses
Policymakers inundated with self-serving arguments for specific spectrum allocation need ways to evaluate which actually advance the public interest. By focusing on the goal of productive spectrum use, one can differentiate between reasoning that would enhance productivity and that which would only advance private interests.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationThe U.S. Approach to Quantum Policy
In the nearly 25 years since the first quantum technologies workshops, quantum information science has advanced and its potential to drive major advances has become more apparent. The U.S. government has rightly recognized that it needs to play an active role in ensuring the nation remains competitive in this critical field.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationExploring Data-Sharing Models to Maximize Benefits From Data
Data-driven innovation has the potential to be a massive force for progress. Data sharing enables organizations to increase the utility and value of the data they control and gain access to additional data controlled by others.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationComparing Canadian and U.S. R&D Leaders in Advanced Sectors
R&D-intensive companies are key to national growth and competitiveness. Canada lags far behind the United States and the rest of the world in R&D-intensive firms. The Canadian government should consider reforming and expanding its SR&ED tax incentive.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationOvercoming Barriers to Data Sharing in the United States
Without policy change, the United States will continue trending toward data siloes—an inefficient world in which data is isolated, and its benefits are restricted.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationBig Tech’s Free Online Services Aren’t Costing Consumers Their Privacy
There is no evidence that breaking up big online platforms will improve digital privacy, but there is overwhelming evidence that breaking up these services or restricting them from collecting user data will harm consumers and workers.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationLatin American Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index
For policymakers to bolster the global competitiveness of their nations and regions, they first must know where they stand. This report benchmarks the 182 regions of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States using 13 commonly available indicators of strength in the knowledge economy, in globalization, and in innovation capacity.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationTransatlantic Subnational Innovation Competitiveness Index 2.0
For policymakers to bolster the global competitiveness of their nations and regions, they first must know where they stand. This report benchmarks the 121 regions of Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the United States using 13 commonly available indicators of strength in the knowledge economy, globalization, and innovation capacity.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationHow Expanding the Information Technology Agreement to an “ITA-3” Would Bolster Nations’ Economic Growth
Completing a second expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (an “ITA-3”) could bring more than 400 unique ICT products under the ITA’s tariff-eliminating framework, which would add more than $750 billion to the global economy over 10 years.
Information Technology and Innovation FoundationHow Skeptics Misconstrue the Link Between Drug Prices and Innovation
A recent article in the British Medical Journal contends “high drug prices” are neither necessary nor justified to sustain biopharmaceutical innovation. But it misrepresents and misinterprets the facts, highlighting how faulty the rationale is for drug price controls.
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation