Podcast: Innovating in the Defense Sector to Remain Competitive With China, Featuring Michael Brown

In the decade since the global financial crisis, the Chinese government has moved aggressively to stimulate capital investment that will strengthen its competitive position, both domestically and in global markets.

Fact of the Week: Chinese Government-backed Investment Funds Aim to Control $1.7 Trillion

When universities invest in R&D, they can generate returns for themselves of up to 9 percent, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: When Universities Invest In R&D, They Can Generate Returns For Themselves Of Up To 9 Percent

Recognizing that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less profitable and innovative than private firms, China relinquished control of many SOEs beginning in the late 1990s, but still gives former SOEs easier access to loans and favors them in allocating subsidies. A new study analyzed the impacts of this, observing Chinese enterprises’ performance between 1998 and 2013.

Fact of the Week: Former Chinese State-Owned Enterprises Produce More Patents than Current SOEs but Still Lag Private Firms

Last week’s memorandum from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced that all federal agencies are to develop policies to make the results of federally funded research freely available by 2026.

Fact of the Week: Federally Funded U.S. Research Will Now Be Publicly Available for Free

The Chinese government funds an exceptionally large amount of R&D, with direct government subsidies accounting for a quarter of the country’s total R&D spending in 2015. As such, how well the government allocates those funds plays an outsized role in determining how innovative the nation can be.

Fact of the Week: Following China's Anti-Corruption Campaign, Highly Productive Firms Received 44 Percent More R&D Subsidies

Federal funding of private R&D comes in two forms: grants, in which the government has very little interaction with the research decisions made, and cooperative agreements, in which the government has significant control over research decisions and much more detailed project monitoring. Whether this higher level of government involvement hinders researchers by increasing bureaucracy or ensures that funding is not misallocated is hotly contested, but a paper released in June gives reason to believe that cooperative agreements are used well.

Fact of the Week: Federal R&D Contracts That Operate as Cooperative Agreements are More Likely to Result in Patents

When the federal government committed $500 million to invest in a Manufacturing Innovation Institute, non-governmental entities pledged twice as much, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Innovation Fact of the Week: When the Federal Government Committed $500M to a Manufacturing Innovation Initiative, Industry and Academia Threw in $1B More

In 1983, the Japanese government began a series of robot technology R&D projects, which partnered with Japanese firms. New analysis of 25 years of these projects, from 1993 to 2008, found that not only did these projects create valuable results, they also caused participating firms to be more efficient in their future research.

Fact of the Week: Japanese Firms Increased Their Productivity in Robot Technology R&D After Cooperative Research with Government

State-owned Chinese firms receive up to four times more R&D subsidies but are less innovative than private Chinese firms, writes John Wu in Innovation Files

Fact of the Week: Private Chinese Firms Innovate More Efficiently Than State-Owned Firms, Yet China Showers Much More Generous R&D Subsidies on State-Owned Firms

Large bodies of research have established that firms can benefit from the spillover effects of innovation by other firms and universities, but significantly less is known about the extent to which firms benefit from R&D conducted by governments outside of academia. This year, the U.S. government launched the Unleashing American Innovation initiative, attempting to maximize private use of public research, which a new paper indicates is badly needed.

Fact of the Week: New, Knowledge-Intensive Enterprises That Use Innovations From Government-Funded Programs Add Employees and Grow Sales Faster

Although Congress made permanent the research and development tax credit in 2015, the federal government and states still can do more—a 10 percent increase in R&D tax credit generosity permanently increases labor productivity by 0.4 percent per year, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: Increasing R&D Tax Credit by 10 Percent Could Boost Labor Productivity Growth by 0.4 Percent Per Year

For the U.S. government to restore National Institutes of Health funding to a level comparable to 2003, it would have had to allocate an additional $11.6 billion dollars last year, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Innovation Fact of the Week: NIH Would Need an Additional $11.6 Billion to Bring its Funding Back to Where it was in 2003 as a Share of GDP

A recent study highlights the critical role the U.S. government played in financing and developing patented technologies coming out of regional technology clusters.

Fact of the Week: R&D Spending During WWII Spurred a Sustained Wave of Innovation That Lasted Through the 1970s

The U.S. is currently lacking most if not all of identified characteristics that are associated with competitive advantage, but there are potential steps that can be taken moving forward. 

Fact of the Week: Government R&D Appropriations Account for About One-Quarter of Business-Sector TFP Growth Since World War II

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Podcast: Innovating in the Defense Sector to Remain Competitive With China, Featuring Michael Brown

Fact of the Week: Chinese Government-backed Investment Funds Aim to Control $1.7 Trillion

Fact of the Week: When Universities Invest In R&D, They Can Generate Returns For Themselves Of Up To 9 Percent