Think Like an Enterprise: Why Nations Need Comprehensive Productivity Strategies

Productivity is the most important driver of economic welfare. Unfortunately, on this measure, the United States is in trouble. Since the end of the Great Recession, U.S. productivity growth has sagged to its lowest level since the late 1940s. And productivity will likely continue to lag in the absence of a comprehensive national productivity policy. Conventional wisdom holds there is little policymakers can do to raise productivity—but conventional wisdom is wrong.

Please join ITIF to discuss a new report on why productivity has lagged, why conventional policy solutions are likely to be inadequate, and what governments should to restore robust productivity growth. The report knocks down common misconceptions such as the idea that raising productivity will kill jobs, and it recommends, among other policies:

• Eliminating policies that favor small firms over larger firms, because small firms are less productive;
• Restructuring tax codes to favor capital investment;
• Developing and funding scientific and engineering programs focused on productivity-enhancing technologies, such as robotics and artificial intelligence;
• Supporting wide-scale adoption of productivity-enhancing technology platforms;
• Developing strategies to identify specific opportunities to boost productivity sector by sector; and
• Shifting the institutional focus of government to make higher productivity the principal goal of economic policy—across the economy and within government itself.