Publications: Meghan Ostertag

Broad semiconductor tariffs may aim to strengthen U.S. national security, but could ultimately weaken U.S. technological leadership. Higher chip costs could raise consumer prices while slowing investment in the AI infrastructure that drives future growth.

If cancer deaths were to be fully eliminated by 2030, over the subsequent 35 years, 30.7 million deaths would be averted, saving 380 million years of life. These additional years of life would also yield substantial economic benefits, as each year of life generates economic value, increased productivity, and tax revenue.

Chinese industrial policy is reshaping global manufacturing and impacting every U.S. state. The result is growing risk to American industry, jobs, and national security.

For policymakers to bolster their regional innovation capacity and global competitiveness, they first must know where they stand. This report benchmarks 48 regions across Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Serbia on 13 commonly available innovation indicators.

The Western Balkan have excelled in attracting foreign direct investment, with average inflows as a share of gross domestic product equaling 6.4 percent between 2020 and 2023. In contrast, the average rate for the EU was 1.5 percent and about 0.9 percent in the United States.

EU regulations have cost European businesses about $176 billion annually, equivalent to almost 1 percent of the bloc’s GDP, and this cost doesn’t include the lost innovation and forgone growth that may have occurred if those rules were not in place.

U.S. automotive competitiveness has severely faltered. The federal government needs a comprehensive national strategy to revitalize the industry’s competitiveness, especially in the face of Chinese EVs.

China has overtaken the United States in R&D investment for the first time amid slowing U.S. R&D growth. Without stronger policy action, America risks falling further behind.

China now produces nearly one-quarter of global output in the 10 advanced industries that make up ITIF’s Hamilton Index, outpacing all other nations. America and the West must recognize that China’s gains are coming at the expense of their techno-economic and national power.

In 2024, researchers and scientists in China were responsible for developing more than 1,250 new drugs, more than the EU and just slightly less than the United States, which developed 1,440. In total, China developed 30 percent of the world's new innovative drugs.