Growing animus toward “Big Tech” companies and generalized opposition to technological innovation engenders support for policies that are expressly designed to inhibit it. That is deeply problematic for future progress, prosperity, and competitiveness.

A Policymaker’s Guide to the “Techlash”—What It Is and Why It’s a Threat to Growth and Progress

Given that the economy has been in an unprecedented productivity growth slump—and the baby boom retirement wave is rising—taxing automation equipment ranks as a singularly bad policy idea.

The Case Against Taxing Robots

The European Commission has set out to ensure digital markets are “fair and contestable.” But in a paradigm shift for antitrust enforcement, its proposal would impose special regulations on a narrowly defined set of “gatekeepers.” Contrary to its intent, this will deter innovation—and hold back small and medium-sized firms—to the detriment of the economy.

The Digital Markets Act: European Precautionary Antitrust

An increasingly digitalized global economy requires ever-more digitally skilled workforces for nations to remain productive. Unfortunately, domestic and international assessments of digital skills show the United States is lagging its competitors.

Assessing the State of Digital Skills in the U.S. Economy

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.

Emerging Industrial Policy Approaches in the United States

Chinese high-speed rail firm CRRC is less innovative than European and Japanese firms, but mercantilist policies help it dominate in China and expand globally. This starves superior firms of revenue, reduces their R&D, and slows the pace of global innovation.

Heading Off Track: The Impact of China’s Mercantilist Policies on Global High-Speed Rail Innovation

Working together, firms from different parts of the digital economy can disrupt the supply side of the digital piracy equation to make it harder and costlier for illicit operators to function.

How Voluntary Agreements Among Key Stakeholders Help Combat Digital Piracy

Low profit margins keep many small businesses from investing in productivity-enhancing technology, which in turn holds down wages. To break that cycle, there should be a federal program that helps them reap economies of scale and scope by collaborating in areas such as R&D, investment, marketing, and health insurance purchases.

Small Business Boards: A Proposal to Raise Productivity and Wages in All 50 States and the District of Columbia

The bill fails to recognize three critical realities: 1) that drug prices are, in fact, not a significant driver of raging inflation; 2) that there exist better mechanisms to reform Medicare Part D drug pricing practices; 3) that mandated government price controls do inflict serious harm on nations’ life-sciences innovation systems.

Senate Reconciliation Legislation Fails to Reconcile the Interests of Biomedical Innovation and Drug Price Affordability

A vocal group of alarmists worry that the pace of automation will soon displace human labor to such an extent that many workers will be left with nothing to do. Never mind that generation after generation of technological innovations in industries ranging from textiles to steel to banking have always produced the opposite result: expanding the labor force, not wiping it out.

Podcast: How Automation Expands Opportunities for Human Labor, With James Bessen

Rob and Jackie sat down with Dr. Juan Gilbert, chair of the University of Florida’s Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department, to discuss how the United States has fallen behind in recruiting students in science, technology, engineering, and math and what policymakers, universities, and industries can do diversify their candidate pools.

Podcast: The Keys to Diversifying Computer Science Education, With Dr. Juan Gilbert

Podcast: The Evolution of Robotics and Prospects for Maximizing Adoption, With Rian Whitton

In 2014, other OECD countries invested 0.6 percent of their GDPs on active labor market policies, while the United States invested just 0.1 percent of its GDP. Moreover, the United States now invests less than half of what it did 30 years ago on such programs as a share of GDP, writes Stephen Ezell in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: Other OECD Nations Invest Six Times More Than the U.S. on Active Labor Market Policies Such as Workforce Training and Skills Development

U.S. manufacturing has employed one production worker for every non-production worker since 2002, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Innovation Fact of the Week: U.S. Manufacturing Holding Steady at One Production Worker For Every Non-production Worker

Washington had the highest demand for these job positions in 2017, with 12 percent of open job listings coming in data-science positions, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: The Share of Job Postings in the US Allowing Remote and Hybrid Work Arrangements Has More Than Tripled Since 2019

Editors’ Recommendations

It’s Not Up for Debate. Remote and Hybrid Are the Future of Work—Even for Federal Employees

Telecommute Nation: If Half of Us Could Work Remotely, Why Don't We?

Seven Ways to Make Remote Work Successful Beyond COVID-19

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