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Manufacturing

As nations engage in a race for global advantage in innovation, ITIF champions a new policy paradigm that ensures businesses and national economies can compete successfully by spurring public and private investment in foundational areas such as research, skills, and 21st century infrastructure. Our research on manufacturing policy examines current trends and encouraging continued innovation in the manufacturing sector through increased public and private investment.

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Computer Chips vs. Potato Chips: The Case for a U.S. Strategic-Industry Policy

Computer Chips vs. Potato Chips: The Case for a U.S. Strategic-Industry Policy

With the rise of China, the United States needs more than a competitiveness strategy; it needs a policy specifically tailored to boost production and innovation capacity in strategically important industries—especially technologically sophisticated ones with dual-use capabilities.

More Publications and Events

March 11, 2024|Blogs

Fact of the Week: Manufacturing Firms That Use Cloud Computing Export More Often Than Non-Users

A recent working paper found that manufacturers that use cloud computing systems are more likely than non-users to export, and they also export to more regions.

March 4, 2024|Blogs

Fact of the Week: A 1 Percent Increase in STEM Technicians Raises Manufacturing Firms’ Productivity by 4 Percent

A recent working paper found that manufacturing firms, a 1 percent increase in techies’ share of wages was associated with a 4 percent increase in TFP in the next year.

February 21, 2024|Blogs

Boeing Is Too Important to Fail

Any regulatory responses to the recent door-panel failure need to be considered and proportionate, advancing safety while also factoring in the country’s strategic competitiveness.

January 25, 2024|Blogs

The Real “Reality” of America’s Deindustrializing Economy

A recent CATO report takes liberties with statistics to deny U.S. manufacturing is in decline. But the facts remain: It is. It matters. And we need an industrial policy strategy to address it.

June 15, 2023|Presentations

Industry 4.0: Tacit & Formal Manufacturing Knowledge, Technology Transfer, IP

Rob Atkinson spoke about the importance of intellectual property to continued innovation and how it fits into enabling future advanced innovation systems, especially in manufacturing, at an event held by Arizona State University's Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes and George Mason University's Center for Intellectual Property and Innovation Policy.

May 8, 2023|Blogs

Fact of the Week: US Manufacturing Commitments Double in Response to Subsidies in the CHIPS and Sciences Act and the IRA

Companies have committed more than $200 billion to U.S. manufacturing projects since the passage of the CHIPS and Sciences Act and the Inflation Reduction Act last year.

March 29, 2023|Events

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

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.

February 23, 2023|Blogs

Recent U.S. Manufacturing Employment Growth Hides the Sector’s Abysmal Productivity Performance

Over the last two years, the U.S. economy has added 830,000 manufacturing jobs. At first glance, this suggests a renewed strength in manufacturing. In reality, it masks a new weakness: productivity decline.

February 22, 2023|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles

Manufacturing and Trade Balances: A Response from Rob Atkinson

Supporting manufacturing to lower the trade deficit doesn’t have to mean the dreaded “picking winners”. It could mean an investment tax credit and much higher R&D tax credit. It could be official policy to not defend the dollar. It could mean a regulatory system that spurs innovation.

September 19, 2022|Blogs

Fact of the Week: The US Manufacturing Trade Deficit as a Share of GDP Through June Is at Its Highest Level Since 2008

After falling from its peak of 5.7 percent in 2006 to 3.6 percent in 2019, the United States’ manufacturing trade deficit as a share of its GDP has risen to 5.3 percent in 2022 through June, its highest level since 2008 (5.5 percent).

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