The use of robotics will increase productivity and has the potential to bring more manufacturing production work back to developed countries. As productivity increases, labor is likely to receive a significant share of the benefits.

Robotics and the Future of Production and Work

Given that the economy has been in an unprecedented productivity growth slump—and the baby boom retirement wave is rising—taxing automation equipment ranks as a singularly bad policy idea.

The Case Against Taxing Robots

An increasingly digitalized global economy requires ever-more digitally skilled workforces for nations to remain productive. Unfortunately, domestic and international assessments of digital skills show the United States is lagging its competitors.

Assessing the State of Digital Skills in the U.S. Economy

Contrary to common belief, enterprise automation is not a cause for alarm, but instead a societal imperative. Modern nations will need all the productivity they can get to address today’s ever-more-resource-constrained challenges.

The Enterprise Automation Imperative—Why Modern Societies Will Need All the Productivity They Can Get

There may be no more important question for the West’s competitive position in advanced industries than whether China is becoming a rival innovator. While the evidence suggests it hasn’t yet taken the overall lead, it has pulled ahead in certain areas, and in many others Chinese firms will likely equal or surpass Western firms within a decade or so.

China Is Rapidly Becoming a Leading Innovator in Advanced Industries

India has the potential to play a much more significant role in global semiconductor value chains, provided the government upholds its investment policies, maintains a conducive regulatory and business environment, and avoids measures that create unpredictability.

Assessing India’s Readiness to Assume a Greater Role in Global Semiconductor Value Chains

Join ITIF and OECD to explore policy questions that arose in the context of the OECD Review of Innovation Policy: Germany, but which have relevance to both the United States and Germany.

The Future of Manufacturing and Innovation in Germany and the United States

Cloud computing drives innovation and productivity across the economy, just as the electric grid did a century ago—yet it is more capable and dynamic, and it still in its early stages. Cloud is important not just at the firm level, but also for economic growth and global competitiveness.

Secrets From Cloud Computing’s First Stage: An Action Agenda for Government and Industry

As America seeks to counter a rising China, no nation is more important than India, with its vast size, abundance of highly skilled technical professionals, and strong political and cultural ties with the United States. But the parallels between America’s dependency on China for manufacturing and its dependency on India for IT services are striking.

India Is an Essential Counterweight  to China—and the Next Great  U.S. Dependency

AI promises to help cities save money, address infrastructure needs, and reduce emissions. But to unlock these benefits and help smart cities reach their full potential, the federal government has an important role to play in funding RD&D and facilitating cooperation.

How Congress and the Biden Administration Could Jumpstart Smart Cities With AI

The United States has no national, coordinated innovation policy system. In fact, its overall innovation system has been deteriorating. The country’s economic future and national security will depend on rising to the challenge of addressing this problem.

Understanding the U.S. National Innovation System, 2020

Few policymakers and even fewer pundits or economic analysts understand U.S. competitiveness problems in a way that would lead them to the logical conclusion that a national innovation and competitiveness strategy would count as a viable solution.

How Nine Flawed Policy Concepts Hinder the United States From Adopting the Advanced-Industry Strategy It Needs

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed gaps in society’s digital readiness for social distancing. If policymakers seize the opportunity to address these gaps, they can make it easier to manage the next pandemic while providing significant long-term social and economic benefits.

Digital Policy for Physical Distancing: 28 Stimulus Proposals That Will Pay Long-Term Dividends

Despite a plethora of legislation, executive mandates, and other policy guidance to modernize aging federal IT infrastructure, agencies still need access to dedicated IT funding channels with more money and an overarching IT strategy to help guide them in how they fund IT initiatives.

Federal IT Modernization Needs a Strategy and More Money

China’s relentless drive and strategic investments in AI suggest it is only a matter of time before it catches up—if not surpasses—the United States’ early lead.

How Innovative Is China in AI?

Daniel Castro speaks about AI's impact on electricity consumption at the 

Virtual Only

Daniel Castro speaks about AI's impact on electricity consumption at the Capital Goods Virtual Conference 2024.

Capital Goods: Artificial Intelligence, Data-centres, Electrification and Automation

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Robotics and the Future of Production and Work

The Case Against Taxing Robots

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