Innovation Economics

This important book delivers a critical wake-up call: a fierce global race for innovation advantage is under way, and while other nations are making support for technology and innovation a central tenet of their economic strategies and policies, America has no robust innovation policy at all. What does this portend? Robert Atkinson and Stephen Ezell, widely respected economic thinkers, report on profound new forces that are shaping the global economy - forces that favour nations with innovation-based economies. Unless the U.S. enacts public policies to reflect this reality, Americans face the lower standards of living associated with a noncompetitive national economy. The authors explore how a weak innovation economy has delayed America's recovery from the Great Recession and how innovation in the U.S. compares with that in other developed and developing nations. Atkinson and Ezell then lay out a detailed, pragmatic road map not only for America to regain its global innovation advantage by 2020, but also for maximizing the global supply of innovation and promoting sustainable globalization. "In today's highly competitive global economy, innovation matters more than ever to a country's standard of living. But as Atkinson and Ezell so persuasively argue, this is a race in which the US is falling behind. Even more concerning, they draw striking parallels to other countries that have followed similar paths. This book challenges many myths about the US's long-term competitive situation, and offers important suggestions for how to reverse course. With "Innovation Economics", Atkinson and Ezell have sounded an important wake up call."--Gary Pisano, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School--Gary Pisano