Publications: Robert D. Atkinson

If the UN were serious about ending poverty and improving living standards worldwide, it would make productivity growth the organizing principle of its sustainable development agenda.

Canadian innovation, productivity, and competitiveness are weak. Absent serious policy change, they will likely get even weaker. A turnaround requires addressing Canada’s core challenges—most fundamentally, a Canadian political economy that is not designed for the techno-economic environment the country now faces.

The strongest case for U.S. manufacturing policy is not jobs or economic multipliers. It’s the trade deficit and China’s techno-economic challenge.

After meetings in Beijing, Trump should judge every proposed techno-economic and trade deal on one question: Does it strengthen or weaken China’s national power industries, especially vis-à-vis the United States?

The U.S. education and workforce development system is ill-suited to winning the economic power industry war with China. It’s time for systemic reforms to produce students and workers with skills and capabilities that national power industries need.

The lessons of America’s worst trade decision remain unlearned.

Creative destruction drives growth but displaces workers. Governments shouldn’t stop it; they should support workers through the transition. The Nordic model shows it’s possible.

As Korea moves toward its goal of commercializing Level 4 autonomous driving by 2027, the central constraint may not be technological readiness but whether the government reforms the mobility market in advance. Without regulatory changes, Korea risks deploying advanced autonomous vehicles within a closed, taxi-centered system.

After decades of bad advice that led many developing nations down the wrong path and ignored evidence against neoclassical dogma, the World Bank should have the courage to admit it was wrong.

The U.S. government needs to do what many nations around the world are already doing by leaning into rail technologies such as positive track control and automated track inspection, not resisting them on behalf of special interests.