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.

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.

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.

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.

ITIF and a global network of think tanks call on governments around the world to commit to a clear set of principles to ensure generative AI tools serve democratic ideals and promote global progress.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Instead of duplicating any one approach, U.S. policymakers should borrow from the menu of options to craft a cohesive, pro-innovation data strategy.

If the United States is to win the techno-economic battle instigated by China, trade policy must prioritize global market access for high-fixed-cost advanced industries such as aerospace, biopharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and software.

Defending Digital Series, No. 22: That digital technologies are a “threat to democracy” is now conventional wisdom, even though nontechnology factors have done much more to undermine America’s electoral confidence than anything digital. Unfortunately, today’s exaggerated electoral accusations have given additional life and power to the full range of dubious Big Tech critiques.

America is home to 85 percent of the world’s small, research-intensive biopharma firms. These start-ups are critical to drug development and U.S. competitiveness. Congress should make targeted changes to tax policy to incentivize them and maintain U.S. biopharma leadership.

High rates of broadband adoption benefit all of society, yet those who stand to benefit the most are also least likely to be online. Pushing hard for near-universal connectivity is crucial if we want technology to help bridge, rather than widen, existing divides.

Introducing immersive technologies into classrooms has the potential to make the U.S. education system more effective. But before these technologies are deployed in schools, the federal government should increase R&D investments in key areas that need further research.

The United States could regain its position as a global leader on digital policy by prioritizing a pro-innovation agenda, cooperating with its allies to advance free trade and democratic values, and pushing back against harmful narratives and policies.

The G7 should develop a pragmatic agenda to bring the “Data Free Flow with Trust” initiative to life. If it doesn’t, building an open, rights-respecting, and innovative global digital economy only gets harder as China and others fill the vacuum from the lack of global digital cooperation.

China wants to displace the United States as the world’s leading innovation economy. Business R&D in advanced, traded-sector industries is a key indicator of its progress—and it is catching up rapidly. Congress and U.S. state governments should respond by boosting R&D tax incentives.

New broadband funding programs necessitate dramatic reforms to old programs. We should reverse the status quo and sustain the Affordable Connectivity Program by shrinking the redundant hodgepodge of federal broadband programs.

Trying to force adoption of clean energy with subsidies, regulations, and exhortations will fail. The only realistic way to spur the green transition is to develop clean technologies that can reach effective price and performance parity with dirty ones. Then markets will adopt them at scale.

Arguments for weakening IP rights have been gaining traction in the United States to enable a redistribution agenda. But spurring U.S. competitiveness, supporting American jobs, and advancing innovation will require the federal government to step up its game in defense of a more robust global IP regime.

The Federal Data Strategy suffers from a lack of leadership and fails to link its well-defined principles and practices to government-wide and agency-level missions. The Biden administration must revive and reimagine it in order to succeed in transforming the federal government into a 21st century organization.

The FTC has granted itself the power to bring antitrust enforcement actions based on amorphous and politically motivated ideas of “fairness.” There should instead be a uniform standard for what constitutes fairness in both consumer protection and competition policy.

The FY 2024 budget request, if met, could maintain bipartisan momentum for clean energy innovation. Congress should support that innovation to foster domestic clean energy industries that can compete globally, minimize foreign dependencies, and address climate change.

Antitrust authorities want to revise merger guidelines based on dubious theories of potential harm that fail to recognize how many mergers foster innovation, productivity, and U.S. global competitiveness. New merger guidelines should better account for these considerations.

Concerns about artificial intelligence have prompted policymakers to propose a variety of laws and regulations to create “responsible AI.” Unfortunately, many proposals would likely harm AI innovation because few have considered what “responsible regulation of AI” entails.