In 2012, U.S. lawmakers scuttled legislation to block websites trafficking in pirated content after opponents instigated a furious backlash by claiming it would “break the Internet.” But since then, dozens of countries have done it effectively—and the Internet continues to flourish.
In the absence of a federal privacy law, a growing patchwork of state laws burdens companies with multiple, duplicative compliance costs. The out-of-state costs from 50 such laws could exceed $1 trillion over 10 years, with at least $200 billion hitting small businesses.
Broadband populists have engaged in an aggressive campaign to disparage the performance of the U.S. broadband system, which is driven by intermodal competition between large ISPs, in order to build a case for government-owned and operated networks.
Accelerating clean energy innovation is critical to avert the worst effects of climate change, but the global energy innovation system is in poor health, with weaknesses across most indicators. Nations must rectify these weaknesses to deliver on the promises world leaders made at COP26.
“Defending Digital” Series, No. 1: Policymakers who want to assign blame for societal misinformation (and regulate social media) need to examine both new and old media—conservative and liberal alike. Focusing on one type of media or one particular company is unfair and unwarranted.
With the rise of China, the United States needs more than a competitiveness strategy; it needs a policy specifically tailored to boost production and innovation capacity in strategically important industries—especially technologically sophisticated ones with dual-use capabilities.
Including U.S. firms on the official list that names and shames havens for piracy and counterfeiting would give the false impression that America has weak IP enforcement and undermine U.S. efforts to convince other countries to do more to address the problem.
Congress is poised to expand funding for U.S. competitiveness. But a one-time infusion of resources is not enough: The federal government needs to formulate and implement a coherent advanced-industry competitiveness strategy.
Renewables are far from being affordable, available, or reliable enough to meet growing demand for zero-carbon electricity. Scientists have developed promising solutions to these limitations, but it will require sustained, expanded federal investments to grow them to a transformative scale.
The EU’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) in its current form will touch upon a much wider section of the EU’s economy and society than the European Commission publicly states or likely even envisages.
An increasingly digitalized global economy requires ever-more digitally skilled workforces for nations to remain productive. Unfortunately, domestic and international assessments of digital skills show the United States is lagging its competitors.
Data portability requirements should be carefully designed to avoid imposing unnecessary costs on organizations, exposing proprietary information, or undermining consumer privacy.
America has lost 70 percent of its semiconductor manufacturing capacity over the last three decades. That serves as a harsh lesson for policymakers: Failing to maintain a supportive policy environment could set up other high-tech industries to falter, too.
Report for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute: Instead of succumbing to the “small is beautiful, big is ugly” narrative, Canada must recognize the critical role large businesses play in a growing, competitive economy with high productivity and wages.
Banning personalized ads would threaten about €6 billion of income for the European app economy—a sector that employs 1.5 million people in the EU.
AR/VR technologies have transformative potential in everything from entertainment and communication to workforce development and education. But they also raise unique considerations on issues that policymakers are grappling with in relation to other technologies, such as privacy, safety, security, and equity.
Standards-setting bodies for 5G technology appear to be working well, but U.S. policymakers are justifiably wary of China’s ambitions to manipulate the system. They should stay on guard and provide financial support for U.S. companies to participate.
Prohibiting companies from favoring their own products ignores all the ways it promotes competition and benefits consumers. Antitrust reforms should differentiate that pro-competitive self-preferencing from certain exclusionary practices.
Open Radio Access Networks (Open RANs) would define open standards and interfaces between components of wireless RANs, providing a unique opportunity to diversify the supply chain by separating today’s integrated, single-provider RAN systems into modular parts.
Displaying regulatory and other product information electronically is more practical than using small, confusing physical labels. But countries need to align their approaches to “e-labels” in order to maximize their benefits and avoid creating a new barrier to trade and innovation.
Economic, trade, innovation, and global value chain (GVC) linkages between the United States and Taiwan are vitally important to both nations’ advanced technology industries and broader economies. Policymakers should work to deepen them.
To meet growing global demand for energy services while averting the worst consequences of climate change, the world must accelerate clean energy innovation. Western Europe contributes most to this global process. The United States has faltered. And China has a long way to go.
Productivity growth is the most important factor in economic performance, yet economists and policymakers give it little attention. It is time to develop a national productivity strategy with sector-specific analyses and policies at its core.
The federal government has long avoided industrial policies outside of its defense sector. But now, facing competition from China, it is pursuing a series of new programs at a scale never tried before. The effort will require careful, system-wide planning to bear fruit.
The neo-Brandeisian case for more aggressive merger reviews assumes that market concentration is out of control and enforcement has been too lax. Neither is true. Antitrust regulators should recognize that mergers can contribute to innovation, productivity, and competition.
Levying carbon tariffs is a difficult and counterproductive way for nations with ambitious climate policies to create a level playing field for their higher-cost industrial sectors. A more workable solution would be to design a flexible open-trade club for climate innovators.
Expanding the 25-year-old trade agreement that eliminates tariffs on ICT goods would spur broad-based growth for countries that sign on, because lowering prices increases ICT adoption, which spurs productivity and innovation throughout the economy.
As the Biden administration works with its EU counterparts through the new U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC), it should hold firm in defending the superior U.S. innovation system. To that end, U.S. negotiators must first clarify their positions on at least four strategic questions.
The prevailing narrative is that Americans work in an economy of growing job insecurity, and that new technologies like artificial intelligence have only made matters worse. In fact, jobs are more secure now than at any time since the mid-1990s.
Staring in 2022, a provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will require companies to start amortizing their R&D investments over five years instead of expensing them in the same year they incur the costs. Congress should repeal the rule before it takes effect. Otherwise, companies will do less research in the United States, jobs will be lost, and U.S. competitiveness will suffer.