Productivity growth is the most important factor in economic performance, yet economists and policymakers give it little attention. It is time to develop a national productivity strategy with sector-specific analyses and policies at its core.
Publications
October 11, 2021
If the United States is to effectively advance its interests, which now hinge on spurring faster and deeper digital innovation and transformation, then U.S. policymakers need to recognize how the geopolitical economy has fractured in the digital age and embrace a new framework better suited to the times: national developmentalism.
October 11, 2021
Econometric research found that farmers with access to extension services, where agents visit farmers directly to share new information and technology, were over 18 percent more likely to adopt improved rice varieties than farmers lacking extension services.
October 8, 2021
Raising taxes on companies that compete in global markets, particularly in knowledge-intensive, high-value-added industries, is a recipe for a larger trade deficit, fewer good jobs, and a weaker national defense industrial base.
October 7, 2021
Most analysis of China’s mercantilist economic and trade practices has focused on its impacts on production and jobs in affected countries. But the aperture needs to be widened to consider the effect on innovation outside of China.
October 4, 2021
It’s time for Washington to take U.S. manufacturing decline, especially in advanced sectors, more seriously.
October 4, 2021
Facebook has been actively investigating the potential negative impacts of its platforms so it can build better products. Congress should be encouraging this. But last week’s Senate hearing on what Facebook has learned about Instagram’s impact on teenage girls sent the opposite message.
October 4, 2021
The federal government has long avoided industrial policies outside of its defense sector. But now, facing competition from China, it is pursuing a series of new programs at a scale never tried before. The effort will require careful, system-wide planning to bear fruit.
October 4, 2021
Work associated with the digital economy may only concern a narrow industry, but the economywide accession of that industry’s innovations is far more valuable than just its output.
October 4, 2021
Rob and Jackie sat down recently with David Teece, the Thomas W. Tusher Professor in Global Business at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, to discuss the intersection of innovation and economics in antitrust policy.