Publications: Robert D. Atkinson

Echoing social capitalism, the encyclical gets technology and employment wrong, succumbing to the lump-of-labor fallacy and short-term protection over long-term progress.

Increased federal funding for STEM research is necessary but not sufficient for America to avoid losing to China. It’s also time for a new model for federal research funding that focuses on the technology needs of national power industries and directly benefits firms in the United States.

The Pope’s AI encyclical reflects social capitalism’s animus toward growth, technology-driven creative destruction, international economic competition, and large business.

South Korea produces large numbers of STEM graduates, but too many are attracted to medicine, and too few go into engineering. Korea should rebalance its education financing and university incentives to ensure that enough engineers are ready to work in advanced industries.

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.