The competitive edge of the US economy has eroded sharply over the last decade, a new study by a nonpartisan research group found.
The report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), The Atlantic Century: Benchmarking EU and U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness, found that the US ranked sixth among 40 countries and regions, based on 16 indicators of innovation and competitiveness. They included venture capital investment, scientific researchers, spending on research and educational achievement.
But the US economy placed last in terms of progress made over the last decade.
“The trend is very troubling,” said Robert Atkinson, president of the foundation and coauthor, along with Scott Andes, of the report.
TRICKY MEASUREMENT
Measuring national competitiveness and the capacity for innovation is tricky. Definitions and methods differ, and so do the outcomes. For example, the World Economic Forum’s recent global competitiveness report ranked the US first. Much of the forum’s report is based on opinion surveys.
A report last year by the Rand Corp concluded that the US was in “no imminent danger” of losing its competitive advantage in science and technology.
The new report, published yesterday, offers a more pessimistic portrait. Its assessment is in line with a landmark study in late 2005, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, by the National Academies, the nation’s leading science advisory group. It warned that the US’ lead in science and technology was “eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength.”
‘INNOVATION ECONOMY’
US President Barack Obama has often said that in the future, international prosperity will depend on the US becoming an “innovation economy.”
His administration’s economic recovery package includes added spending for areas favored by innovation policy advocates, including higher research and development spending and funds for high-technology fields like electronic health records.
But the administration has no coordinated innovation agenda.
Some countries, including Singapore, Taiwan, Finland and China, are pursuing policies that are explicitly designed to spur innovation. These policies typically try to nurture a broader “ecology of innovation,” which often includes education, training, intellectual property protection and immigration. This is in contrast to the industrial policy of the 1980s in which governments helped pick winners among domestic industries.
The new foundation study is an ambitious effort at measurement, said John Kao, a former Harvard business school professor and an innovation consultant to governments and corporations. He called its conclusions “a wake-up call.”
ECONOMY ADJUSTMENTS
In the foundation report, unlike some competitiveness studies, results were adjusted for the size of each economy and its population. Consequently, the US ranked sixth in venture capital investment (Sweden was first); fifth in corporate research and development spending (Japan led); and fourth in science and technology researchers (again, Sweden was first).
Overall, the most innovatively competitive nation was Singapore, which embarked on a national innovation strategy years ago, investing heavily and recruiting leading scientists and technologists from around the world.
Atkinson said the US should act more like the individual states had been doing for some time. They have government programs to attract investment and talent and improve work force skills of local people.
The study’s specific recommendations include federal incentives for US companies to innovate at home, ranging from research tax incentives to work force development tax credits. Public investments and regulatory incentives can accelerate the use of information technology in health care, energy systems, transportation, government and education.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique