If policymakers fail to prioritize investments into STEM-oriented human capital alongside investments in ICT, then productivity growth will stagnate and countries won’t receive the full economic benefits that ICT has to offer.

Fact of the Week: A 10-Point Increase in a Firm’s Share of High-Skilled Workers Correlates With a 2% Productivity Increase for Knowledge-Intensive Services and a 7% Increase for Other Services

A recent study found that the relationship between concentration and productivity was negative in only three of 15 countries.

Fact of the Week: Productivity and Market Concentration Are Positively Associated in Most of the Core Economies in Europe

A recent study highlights the critical role the U.S. government played in financing and developing patented technologies coming out of regional technology clusters.

Fact of the Week: R&D Spending During WWII Spurred a Sustained Wave of Innovation That Lasted Through the 1970s

Businesses in the European Union lag U.S. businesses not just in the amount they invest in R&D, but also in their capabilities to transform these investments into productivity gains, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: U.S. High-Tech Firms Gain Two-And-A-Half Times More Productivity Than European High-Tech Firms From The Same Level Of R&D Investment

Thanks to ICT innovations and new management practices, service-sector firms can more easily scale by establishing multiple businesses in different locations.

Fact of the Week: Increasing the Number of Markets a Firm Enters by 10 Percent Boosts Its Share of Employment in R&D by 0.35 Percentage Points

Innovative U.S. firms, or those that engage in high levels of R&D to develop new products or services, in the aggregate, operate in too few markets relative to the social optimum, thus resulting in less knowledge spillover.

Fact of the Week: US Innovative Firms Operate in Too Few Markets Relative to the Social Optimum

Public support for R&D is critical to bridge the gap in incentivizing technological progress. Three Portuguese economists examined the investment impact of tax incentives for “intangible investments,” another term for non-physical investments that increase productivity, such as human capital, software, and innovation.

Fact of the Week: Portuguese R&D Tax Incentives Spurred Investments in Productivity-Boosting Assets by 0.8 to 2.4 Percent Of Firms’ Total Assets

Fact of the Week: Portuguese R&D Tax Incentives Spurred Investments in Productivity-Boosting Assets by 0.8 to 2.4 Percent Of Firms' Total Assets

Businesses in the European Union were investing 57 percent as much in R&D as their U.S. counterparts as of 2013, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Innovation Fact of the Week: EU Private Sector R&D Investment is 57% of U.S. Level

In the EU, increasing R&D investment by one percent creates 30 percent more employment in high-tech firms than medium-tech firms, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.

Fact of the Week: Technology Cluster Initiatives Raised Total Factor Productivity of Flemish Firms by 2 to 4 Percent

Related

Fact of the Week: A 10-Point Increase in a Firm’s Share of High-Skilled Workers Correlates With a 2% Productivity Increase for Knowledge-Intensive Services and a 7% Increase for Other Services

Fact of the Week: Productivity and Market Concentration Are Positively Associated in Most of the Core Economies in Europe

Fact of the Week: R&D Spending During WWII Spurred a Sustained Wave of Innovation That Lasted Through the 1970s