A Call For 'Innovation Economics'

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released a pair of reports that explain how a new economics doctrine - innovation economics - should drive economic policymaking in the next White House. One study describes how three traditional economics doctrines - conservative neo-classical (supply-side), liberal neo-classical (Rubinomics), and neo-Keynesianism - have dominated thinking in Washington. It explains how innovation economics, which is based on an explicit effort to understand and model how technological advances occur, should be the path of the future. A companion report argues that putting innovation at the center of U.S. economic policies can spur economic growth and raise standards of living. ITIF offers eight policy ideas to drive innovation-led economic growth: 1) Significantly expand the federal research and development tax credit; 2) Create a national innovation foundation; 3) Allow foreign students receiving graduate degrees to get a green card; 4) Reform the patent system to drive innovation; 5) Let companies expense new investments in IT in the first year; 6) Establish a federal chief information officer; 7) Implement a national broadband strategy; and 8) Implement an innovation-based national trade policy.