Regions

The legislated targets should be a tool used to stimulate technology research, development, and commercialization of Canadian innovations, not a goal in and of itself.

Reorienting economic policy around green growth, as opposed to boosting productivity or ensuring export competitiveness, is not the path to Canadian growth, as Robert Atkinson writes in Re$earch Money.

Canada should drop its Digital Services Tax, which will harm Canadian businesses, startups, and consumers and surely lead to a retaliatory response by the U.S. government.

The Competition Bureau of Canada’s 2023 report assessing the state of competition in Canada has several methodological and interpretation issues that raise doubts about the conclusion's accuracy. As such, policymakers should not use the report as the foundation of competition policymaking or to justify a more aggressive antitrust regime.

There is no free lunch to be found by imposing base contributions on foreign online undertakings to fund the government’s preferred content. The Commission should reckon with the economic realities of its proposal rather than obscuring them behind anti-foreign rhetoric.

Proposed changes to Kenya’s competition regime will hinder, not help its digital economy. Rather than impose substantial changes based on the false premise that digital markets require special treatment, Kenya should use existing enforcement tools to police its growing digital markets.

ITIF’s submission focuses on the ITC’s interest in recent developments in the digital economy for key SSA markets, including national and regional regulatory and policy measures and market conditions that affect digital trade.

When attempting to evaluate the effect that a policy intervention can have on development or innovation, researchers and policymakers routinely look to short-term impacts, both out of urgency and because of the difficulty in maintaining contact with participants over several years.

Over the last decade, mobile money services have brought banking to populations that have lacked formal financial services by allowing users to manage money on their mobile phones. First launched in Kenya in 2007, 96 percent of Kenyan households now use mobile money and can withdraw funds in physical currency from 110,000 agents across the country.

Meet Arthur Zang, a 29 year-old Cameroonian engineer who invented the handheld Cardio-Pad, the world’s first medical tablet facilitating heart examinations and remote diagnosis. The Cardio-Pad is a touch-screen tablet device for conducting cardiac tests such as electrocardiograms in remote locations, and then sending the results to cardiologists in city centers often hundreds of miles away.

In a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Jaedo Choi, et al., investigated the effect of “superstar” firms in South Korea during the so-called “miracle growth period.”

Shifting from evidence-based law enforcement to heavy-handed digital regulation could stifle the innovation Korea needs and lead to various unintended consequences. As the Korean proverb goes, it’s unwise to “burn down the hut to catch a bedbug.”

A recent working paper suggests that mobile broadband access had a significant effect in reducing COVID-19 cases.

Korea thankfully lags behind the West in its techlash “thinking,” but it is by no means free from this corrosive force. Both the West and Korea need a more positive and balanced perspective that doesn’t make technology the source of today’s societal ills.

Taking a cue from the EU does not make sense for Japan, because Brussels’ regulations were adopted in large measure as a response to the bloc’s failure to produce any leading digital companies of its own. Japan, by contrast, is home to many of the world’s top technology companies.

U.S. policymakers are targeting RISC-V, an open-source semiconductor architecture, over concerns about China's influence. Restricting U.S. firms from participating could undermine domestic innovation and competitiveness while benefiting China.

Only a full commitment from the European Union and United States can counter China's economic predation and preserve a market-based system. Criticism that doesn't include China's subsidization, IP theft, and product dumping isn't serious.

David Moschella appeared on The China Desk with Steve Yates to discuss the historically unique challenge China poses to the United States and the West as the world’s largest market, the world’s largest supplier, America’s fiercest competitor, and a geopolitical and military rival—themes that pervade Moschella and Rob Atkinson’s book Technology Fears and Scapegoats.

A recent working paper found that AI and robotics directly promote technological innovation while also bolstering the impact of science and technology investments on technological innovation.

Stephen Ezell appeared on the Energi Talks podcast with journalist Markham Hislop to discuss ITIF’s assessment of Chinese innovation in the nuclear industry.

Europe's evolving political landscape, marked by recent elections and changing priorities, has significant implications for AI policy. While EU policymakers focus on defense, security, and economic growth, integrating AI could bolster these efforts.

Following the joint statement issued by top competition regulators about competition in AI, ITIF released the following statement from Vice President Daniel Castro.

In response to the King’s Speech, which outlines UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s legislative agenda under the new Labour government, the Center for Data Innovation released the following statement from Policy Analysts Ayesha Bhatti and Justyna Lisinska.

In this challenging world, strong techno-economic cooperation between the United States and its closest allies is all the more critical, but can be undermined by the abuse of digital regulation that ultimately ends up placing undue burdens on American firms.

The Italian Competition Authority has a unique opportunity to shape a healthy enforcement landscape for the DMA within the EU.

Given the potential for countries to reshore and automate previously outsourced IT occupations, the Global South’s IT services appear vulnerable to the displacing effects of AI. Yet, existing policy responses may be insufficient to address that challenge.

President Biden’s 2023 executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) directed the State Department to work with other agencies and stakeholders to develop guidance for identifying and managing human rights risks associated with AI. As the State Department prepares this guidance, it should emphasize that in many cases, the risk of inaction—the missed opportunities to use AI to improve human rights—presents the most significant threat, and it should prioritize deploying AI to support and enhance human rights.

Congress and other stakeholders would do well to ignore SOPA as a relic of the past and instead focus on those stakeholders who want to engage on the substantial and growing body of evidence from around the world.

A new working paper estimates that cross-border patenting from the Global North to the Global South would have been about 43 percent lower in the absence of globalization.

Daniel Castro appeared on the Intended Consequences podcast to discuss how countries around the world are going about regulating artificial intelligence and stimulating innovation.

A combination of privacy-protective age verification systems utilizing digital forms of identification and AI, parental controls that are readily available and easy to use, and greater transparency from digital platforms would increase children’s safety and privacy, encourage innovation in improved safety and privacy controls, and better inform policymakers and parents on next steps to protect children.

Mexico's newly elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum, can reverse President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's anti-innovation policies toward genetically modified maize, and improve the lives of small farmers across Mexico.

The current scope of University-Industry (U-I) collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) opens opportunities for research to progress in innovative directions.

Regulation in the digital sector should only be necessary to remedy market failure that cannot be addressed by the current legal framework, which simply is not true.

As Brazil crafts its own Digital Markets Act in the mold of the EU’s, it should be aware of the potential shortcomings and unsubstantiated advantages associated with such wide-ranging economic regulation within the digital market landscape.