Productivity
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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 productivity issues analyzes past, present, and future trends in productivity, and advances policies to drive robust productivity growth, including through tech-based automation.
Featured
The Enterprise Automation Imperative—Why Modern Societies Will Need All the Productivity They Can Get
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.
More Publications and Events
June 24, 2024|Blogs
Fact of the Week: Technology Cluster Initiatives Raised Total Factor Productivity of Flemish Firms by 2 to 4 Percent
A recent working paper suggests that the Flemish SHC initiative to facilitate coordination between firms, research centers, and the government has had a positive impact on innovation.
June 10, 2024|Blogs
Fact of the Week: An Increase in ICT Industries’ Share of Output Raises Labor Productivity
A discussion paper suggests that ICT sectors have a positive association with a country’s productivity.
May 29, 2024|Op-Eds & Contributed Articles
Pros and Cons to New Tech: Stupidity, Productivity, and Whales
A recent commentary piece in the Washington Post argued that the main cause of strong productivity growth in 2023 was not artificial intelligence but rather a surge in new business creation. But that confuses correlation with causation.
May 28, 2024|Presentations
Who’s Afraid of Big Tech? Unpacking the Discourse on Technology and Its Harms
Rob Atkinson speaks at a panel discussion to delve into his latest book, Technology Fears and Scapegoats.
May 20, 2024|Reports & Briefings
Corporate Concentration Is Good for Productivity and Wages
Despite claims by anticorporate neo-Brandeisians, corporate concentration appears positively correlated with higher productivity and wages. So, the push to break up large companies is antiworker and anti-middle class.
May 7, 2024|Books & Edited Volumes
Technology Fears and Scapegoats: 40 Myths about Privacy, Jobs, AI, and Today’s Innovation Economy
Technologies and tech companies are accused of creating a myriad of societal problems. Technology Fears and Scapegoats exposes them as mostly myths, falsehoods, and exaggerations. It issues a clarion call to restore the West’s faith in technological progress.
May 6, 2024|Reports & Briefings
Why the U.S. Economy Needs More Consolidation, Not Less
Larger firms are generally more productive because of scale economies, but some U.S. industries still have too high a share of small firms. Policymakers should encourage, not discourage, greater consolidation in these industries.
May 2, 2024|Blogs
Canada Needs a “Canadian” Productivity Commission
Canada needs a productivity commission. But instead of emulating Australia’s model, which is driven by orthodox neoclassical economics, it should take guidance from “productionists” with a deep understanding of firm, industry, and technology dynamics.
May 2, 2024|Blogs
The Australian Productivity Commission: Don’t Try This at Home
On the Australian Productivity Commission’s watch, productivity growth in Australia over the last two decades is at its lowest for 60 years, with accompanying real wage stagnation.
April 30, 2024|Events
Reviving Canada’s Innovation Economy
Watch now for ITIF's launch event for the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness, an Ottawa-based ITIF affiliate focused on tackling these issues. The event featured an expert panel discussion on a new report from the Centre examining the how and why of Canada’s performance on key measures of productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.
