Hamilton Center on Industrial Strategy
ITIF’s Hamilton Center promotes a practical approach to competitiveness policy that enables U.S. technology leadership in global markets. The Hamiltonian agenda entails more than simply increasing economic inputs and factor conditions that are broadly conducive to innovation and growth, as important as those steps are. The goal instead must be to go further, by crafting and implementing policies and programs that directly enable firms in America to lead in advanced technologies and industries that are strategically important for economic and national security. Read more about the Center and stay up to date by signing up for ITIF’s weekly email and checking the box to get information about competitiveness.
Featured Publications
The Hamilton Index: Assessing National Performance in the Competition for Advanced Industries

Compared to major competitors, U.S. output in key advanced industries is weak and declining. Congress and the administration should launch an economic “moon shot” initiative committing to increase the concentration of these industries in the U.S. economy by at least 20 percentage points relative to the global average within a decade.
The Hamilton Index of Advanced-Industry Performance: Data Visualization Tool

Seven strategically important industries. Sixty-six countries. Twenty-four years’ worth of value-added output data. This interactive visualization tool benchmarks national performance both in nominal U.S. dollars and relative to national shares of global GDP, an industry-concentration ratio known as a location quotient (LQ).
Events
January 11, 2022
What a National Strategic-Industry Policy Should Look Like
ITIF hosted a discussion of what a robust national strategic-industry policy should—and should not—entail.
March 22, 2021
Time for a New National Innovation System for Defense and Competitiveness
ITIF hosted a panel with a keynote speech by Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, followed by an expert discussion with leading defense and technology experts of the health of the current U.S. innovation and production system, including the defense industrial base, and what the new administration and Congress should do to strengthen it.
January 6, 2021
Should the US Accept China’s Economic and Technology Rise?
ITIF hosted an expert debate on these issues, featuring Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies, who has argued that the United States must accept China’s rise, and ITIF President Robert Atkinson, who argued America and Europe must work together to constrain China, particularly its drive to dominate advanced technology industries.
October 7, 2020
How Can America and the West Successfully Compete With China?
ITIF hosted a discussion of these issues, including how U.S. businesses are likely to be affected and what the U.S. government should do in response. An expert panel will discuss a recent ITIF report arguing the United States and its allies should focus on rebalancing global supply chains, bolstering competitiveness, adjusting to China’s market size, and solidifying the West’s appeal.
September 17, 2020
An Allied Approach to Semiconductor Sector Competitiveness
ITIF hosted an event featuring opening remarks by Sen. John Cornyn (T-TX) plus an expert panel discussion about a new report that will articulate how democratic, free-market economies can work together to enhance the innovation potential of their respective semiconductor industries while preserving the industry-led, market-based competition that has characterized the sector for a half-century.
Staff

Vice President, Global Innovation Policy, and Director, Center for Life Sciences Innovation
Advisors

Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
More From the Center
June 16, 2022|Publications
India vs China: The Advanced Industry Production Race
While China surged ahead in 1995 in terms of advanced industry production, the current odds are stacked in India’s favour. If correct actions are taken, we can easily surpass China.
June 14, 2022|Publications
Korea’s Advanced Industry Success Story
Over the last quarter-century, Korea's advanced-industry performance has been superlative and lags only behind Taiwan.
June 6, 2022|Publications
About ITIF’s Hamilton Center on Industrial Strategy
The Hamilton Center promotes a practical approach to competitiveness policy that enables U.S. technology leadership in global markets.
April 21, 2022|Publications
State and Local Governments Need to Stop Subsidizing Chinese Companies
If Congress wants to advance the U.S. economy in its toe-to-toe competition with China, then lawmakers need to pass legislation prohibiting cities, states, and the federal government from providing any funding to Chinese companies investing in the United States.
April 14, 2022|Publications
An Industrial Policy Won’t Hurt You
It is important for conservatives to recognize that China poses a critical threat to America’s future and that we need a strong, technologically vibrant economy to respond. This in turn requires a national industrial policy.
February 5, 2022|Publications
Dear Democrats: The Only Way to Help Workers Is to Help Business
It is very hard to achieve progressive economic goals without strong and competitive traded sectors, and building them requires policies that help business. For the sake of the Republic, it’s important to recognize the connection.
February 5, 2022|Publications
Dear Republicans: Securing U.S. Competitiveness Requires a National Development Policy
There is bipartisan legislation on the table (at least in the Senate) that would produce a more vibrant, dynamic, and globally competitive U.S. economy through a package of incentives and public investments in key foundation areas such as research and development and advanced manufacturing.