Science and R&D

The Case for Improving America’s Research and Experimentation Tax Credit
As recently as the mid-1990s, the United States maintained the most generous R&D tax incentive in the world. As scholarly studies have shown, that helped America stay ahead of its competitors by boosting R&D investment, innovation, jobs, and GDP growth. Fast forward to today, and it’s a very different picture.
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Science and R&D
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June 8, 2020
Podcast: The Real History of Silicon Valley and the Lessons It Holds for Innovation Policy Today, With Margaret O’Mara
What many don’t realize is how important federal investments were in kick-starting the growth of Silicon Valley and other tech hubs in the past.
May 4, 2020
Solving the Surveyor’s Dilemma: Estimating Future Returns From Innovation Program Investments
As policymakers consider the value of small business innovation programs, they should understand that their returns on investment are considerably larger than conventional estimates indicate.
April 27, 2020
Fact of the Week: Start-ups That Utilize Public Research Institutes are 5.3 Percentage Points More Likely to Innovate
Public research institutes (PRIs) are government-owned non-academic centers designed to collaborate with other research groups. They are a key complement to firms’ own R&D investments, although they are often overshadowed.
April 6, 2020
Fact of the Week: Industries That Depend on External Financing Suffer 9.3 Percent Deeper Drops in Their Patenting Rates Than Other Industries do After a Banking Crisis
In the wake of economic downturns, companies are forced to cut costs, often turning to R&D activities, which have a low impact on short-term revenue. A new study has isolated one of the mechanisms through which this takes place by examining patenting in the years after different kinds of economic crises.
March 31, 2020
How SBA’s Affiliation Rules for Venture-Backed Firms Will Limit the Effectiveness of the Paycheck Protection Program
The failure of small venture-backed businesses to qualify for Paycheck Protection Loans could cost more than 275,000 jobs this year directly and more 1 million jobs in total, including indirect losses. The Trump administration should waive the Small Business Administration’s “affiliation rule” in this crisis to prevent these mass layoffs and furloughs.
March 23, 2020
Six Economic Consequences of COVID-19
The economic and social impacts of COVID-19 are widespread and profound, so much so that it will take a long time to catalogue and assess them all in detail.
February 17, 2020
A Budget-Neutral Way to Encourage Business Investment in Research
Congress should double the Alternative Simplified Credit, and lawmakers should pay for the increased research incentive by eliminating the tax break on qualified dividends, which mostly goes to wealthy stockholders.
February 15, 2020
Emerging Defense Technologies Need Funding to Cross ‘The Valley of Death’
Many of the capabilities the country needs for its defense reside in the private sector, so it is critical to establishing better links between the commercial sector and the military.
January 20, 2020
Fostering Innovation-Based Growth Centers in the Heartland
There is now a crisis of regional imbalance at a continental scale that is throwing off disturbing side effects that cry out for response.
January 14, 2020
Scaling Innovation: How the European Innovation Council Bolsters Europe’s Competitiveness
ITIF hosted an expert panel discussion featuring European Commission, Deputy Director-General for Research and Innovation, Signe Ratso, on the thinking and inspiration behind the European Innovation Council, how it will work in practice, and how it is expected to change the face of European innovation over the next decade.

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