Europe

One year later, there is mounting evidence that the law has not produced its intended outcomes; moreover, the unintended consequences are severe and widespread.

As Daniel Castro and Eline Chivot write for European Views, results of recent survey data show that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—which the EU has touted as the gold standard for data protection rules—has had no impact on consumer trust in the digital economy since it came into force last May.

China’s patent output has grown dramatically in recent years, both in terms of the volume of patents submitted for international protection under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and in terms of the number of citations those patents receive, a standard measure of a patent’s importance. New research breaking down the sources of those citations raises significant doubts about whether the growth in Chinese patent citations is as meaningful as it appears.

By providing remote access to data storage, processing, and software, cloud computing lets firms easily scale their computing needs and avoid the large fixed costs of IT infrastructure, which allows small firms to operate and expand more efficiently. New research into cloud adoption by firms in the United Kingdom supports this reasoning.

While it may be tempting to focus on the direct job losses caused by robot adoption, it is wrong to conclude that automation constitutes a generalized threat to workers, either in manufacturing or in the broader economy. By choosing to automate, firms can increase their productivity, which allows them to expand and increase their employment.

Robots are key tools for boosting productivity and living standards, and companies around the world are putting them to use. But while Korea is the world’s largest adopter, with 710 robots per 10,000 workers, the United States sits at seventh, with 200 robots. Why does the United States lag behind?

As Rob Atkinson writes for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Margarethe Vestager’s decision to veto a merger between rail companies Alstom and Siemens shows how preventing EU firms from merging will result in weakened and shrunken European competitors.

The EU has an opportunity to make major strides in the next wave of digital transformation. But it will need to adopt a forward-looking policy perspective that focuses on the benefits of connectivity, automation, and smart systems for Europe’s economy and society.

ITIF's Center for Data Innovation hosted a conversation about how the public and private sectors can work together to accelerate the use of Artificial Intelligence to combat fake news as the European Union prepares for its 2019 elections.

When skilled workers migrate, it seems obvious that the destination country is gaining at the expense of the origin country, which is losing talent and potential sources of innovation. However, a new study has challenged the idea that migration is zero sum, finding that origin countries actually benefit from skilled workers moving abroad.

From a skewed standardization law in China to mercantilist digital services tax proposals in Europe, when countries impose protectionist policies in high-value, high-tech sectors, they don’t just damage competitors; they damage the entire global innovation system.

If countries do not show proper restraint, they can easily sabotage the global Internet by imposing unreasonable obligations on companies and setting up scenarios where companies are forced into a no-win situation of having to comply with conflicting laws.