Reports & Briefings

For brief overviews of how key technologies work and why they matter, see ITIF’s “Technology Explainer Series.”

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January 27, 2020
The Critics Were Wrong: NIST Data Shows the Best Facial Recognition Algorithms Are Neither Racist Nor Sexist
A close look at data from a new NIST report reveals that the best facial recognition algorithms in the world are highly accurate and have vanishingly small differences in their rates of false-positive or false-negative readings across demographic groups.
January 27, 2020
Surveying the Damage: Why We Must Accurately Measure Cross-Border Data Flows and Digital Trade Barriers
Countries that value an open, competitive digital economy should use surveys to improve quantitative analysis of cross-border data flows, because policymakers can’t effectively manage and address barriers to digital trade unless they can measure it.
January 21, 2020
Accelerating Energy Innovation in the 116th Congress: 10 Priorities for 2020
As the House and Senate consider comprehensive energy legislation, these 10 priorities have already won the support of large bipartisan majorities at the committee level in at least one chamber. They should form the nucleus of a bipartisan energy package that gets signed into law this year.
January 13, 2020
What the EU Should Put in the Digital Services Act
The eCommerce Directive—a critical building block of the EU’s digital economy—is in need of modernization, but updates should continue to remove obstacles to online commerce and provide legal certainty to businesses and citizens.
January 13, 2020
Why and How to Mount a Strong, Trilateral Response to China’s Innovation Mercantilism
The United States, the EU, and Japan must band together in stronger trilateral partnership to pressure China into rolling back the mercantilist trade practices it uses to grow advanced, innovation-driven industries.
January 6, 2020
Innovation Drag: China’s Economic Impact on Developed Nations
An examination of the scholarly literature shows that China’s mercantilist-powered economic rise and trade expansion have slowed the progress of innovation in the global economy—particularly in North America and Europe.
December 16, 2019
The Case for a Mostly Open Internet
Policymakers should seek to maximize the benefits of Internet openness while maintaining carefully designed guardrails that reduce the Internet’s most clearly harmful uses.
December 9, 2019
The Case for Growth Centers: How to Spread Tech Innovation Across America
The federal government should take aggressive steps to spur the development of more tech hubs in America’s heartland by identifying promising metro areas and helping them transform into self-sustaining innovation centers.
December 2, 2019
A Roadmap for Europe to Succeed in the Digital Economy
Europe must harness the power of digital innovation not just to increase economic growth and expand prosperity, but also to address important societal challenges related to the environment, public health, transportation, and other pressing concerns.
December 2, 2019
Less Certain Than Death: Using Tax Incentives to Drive Clean Energy Innovation
Tax incentives can play an important role in accelerating the innovations needed for a low-carbon future, but only if the incentives reward innovators rather than support well-entrenched incumbents.

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