ITIF Logo
ITIF Search

Cliff Waldman

Cliff Waldman

Associate Director, Economic Policy

Email: [email protected]

Cliff Waldman was Associate Director of Economic Policy at ITIF. Cliff came to ITIF from New World Economics LLC, a consulting firm that he launched to meet the economic analysis and data generation needs of manufacturers. During his extensive career as a Washington, D.C. economist, Cliff has been an active and in-demand public speaker on topics ranging from the U.S. and global economic outlooks to new markets, productivity, and automation. While he has spoken throughout the US, he has also appeared in Germany, Canada and South Africa. Cliff visited South Africa right after the fall of the apartheid government to give a series of lectures on survey methods and statistical analysis. He returned to South Africa in December 2022 to speak at a global small business conference. Closer to home, Cliff has made appearances at events on Capitol Hill and in major think tanks. He is the host of Manufacturing Talk Radio’s “Manufacturing Think Tank,” his third show in his more than four-year tenure with Manufacturing Talk Radio.

From 2003 to 2018 Cliff served as Senior Economist and Chief Economist of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI). His career has also included tenures as an economic researcher with a state government forecasting and policy research unit as well as with a small business research team in Washington, D.C. Cliff directed a large contract for the Small Business Administration on the entrepreneurship potential of the veteran and service-disabled veteran population. He has won three national research awards.

As a leader in the economics community, Cliff served two years as Chairman of the Board of the National Economists Club. In 2019 he served as co-chair of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) manufacturing roundtable. In 2018 he was awarded the Certified Business Economist (CBE) designation by NABE. He received his M.A. in economics from Rutgers University.

Recent Publications

July 17, 2023

Fact of the Week: Immigrant Inventors Produce 23 Percent of US Patents

In a study comparing the impacts of immigrant inventors with those of their native-born peers between 1990 and 2016, immigrants produced 23 percent of all patents.

July 10, 2023

Fact of the Week: Customer Support Agents Using an AI GPT Tool Saw a Nearly 14 Percent Increase in Productivity

A recent paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research found customer support agents using an AI tool to guide their conversations saw a nearly 14 percent increase in productivity.

More publications by Cliff Waldman

Recent Events and Presentations

December 1, 2017

Trade, Technology and the Future of U.S. Manufacturing

Join ITIF for two expert panels on the intersection of technology and the future of U.S. manufacturing.

January 31, 2017

What Should the Trump Administration’s Manufacturing Strategy Look Like?

Please join ITIF for a panel of experts to discuss important questions related to America’s manufacturing strategy for the new administration and Congress.

Back to Top