May 2008
RAND Corporation: U. S. Competitiveness in S&T
U.S. Competitiveness in Science and Technology adds more data to the discussion on U.S. global competitiveness. According to the RAND press release, "[D]espite perceptions that the nation is losing its competitive edge, the United States remains the dominant leader in science and technology worldwide. The United States accounts for 40 percent of the total world's spending on scientific research and development, employs 70 percent of the world's Nobel Prize winners and is home to three-quarters of the world's top 40 universities. An inflow of foreign students in the sciences -- as well as scientists and engineers from overseas -- has helped the United States build and maintain its worldwide lead, even as many other nations increase their spending on research and development. Continuing this flow of foreign-born talent is critical to helping the United States maintain its lead, according to the study. 'Much of the concern about the United States losing its edge as the world's leader in science and technology appears to be unfounded,' said Titus Galama, co-author of the report and a management scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. 'But the United States cannot afford to be complacent. Effort is needed to make sure the nation maintains or even extends its standing.'
November 2007
World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008
The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008, produced since 1979, this year includes the Forum's Global Competitiveness Index, which incorporates 12 "pillars of competitiveness" consisting of roughly 120 variables to rank 131 countries. These pillars range from Infrastructure and Macroeconomic Stability to more advanced groupings such as Technological Readiness and Innovation. The U.S. and Canada are ranked first and 12th, respectively, in the report's Innovation subgroup. Each country's Innovation ranking was calculated using such variables as the quality of scientific research institutions, company spending on R&D, government procurement of advanced technology products, the availability of scientists and engineers, and intellectual property protection, among others. The top five countries in terms of the composite GCI score were the U.S., Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
European Commission: EU Competitiveness Reports
Raising Productivity Growth: Key Messages from the European Competitiveness Report 2007, delves more into the drivers of competitiveness in the European Union, especially in terms of productivity. The report notes that the labor productivity gap between the E.U. and the U.S., after widening continuously since 2001, is beginning to diminish. While the difference in annual productivity growth was relatively small at 0.1 percent, productivity measured as gross domestic product (GDP) per employed person was 38.6 percent higher in the U.S. than the E.U. and, if measured as GDP per hour worked, was 25 percent higher in the U.S. The report contends the main reason for this gap is the productivity growth from factors such as technical progress and organizational innovation. Policies designed to foster the use of information technologies, increase investment in R&D, and induce competition with product market reform should lessen the gap by driving productivity.
November 2006
Council on Competitiveness: Comparing U.S. Competitiveness
Competitiveness Index: Where America Stands highlights changes in the global economy, "benchmarking current U.S. competitiveness against twenty years of domestic and global economic data." Highlights from the report include:
- The United States is not only the world's largest economy; it has also grown faster between 1986 and 2005 than any other major developed economy. The United States has been responsible for one third of global growth over the past 15 years.
- American workers are among the world's most productive, and they have increased productivity dramatically since 1995 through the production and use of information technology — increasing America's productivity lead over Europe and Japan.
- High levels of productivity allow Americans to compete against low-cost producers around the world. The United States remains the world's largest manufacturer and one of the world's top exporters.
- But U.S. imports have risen faster than exports, driving growth in export-focused economies around the world while increasing America's trade deficit.
- Unprecedented flows of goods and capital into America's growing market have created global imbalances, leading to record U.S. current account deficits and a tripling of U.S. foreign debt since 1999. Emerging markets are financing U.S. deficits so that American consumers will continue to buy their exports — to the tune of $6 billion every working day.
The report also identifies four 'Foundations of U.S. Competitiveness and Sources of Prosperity' (innovation, entrepreneurship, education and energy), highlighting U.S. strengths as well as potential challenges for the future.
The Task Force on the Future of American Innovation: Innovation and National Security
Measuring the Moment: Innovation, National Security and Economic Competitiveness was prepared by the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation, a "coalition of business, scientific and university organizations that came together in 2004 out of concern that insufficient investment in the federal government in research in the physical sciences and engineering was threatening the nation's global economic leadership …" The current report is a follow up to their initial 2005 white paper titled 'The Knowledge Economy, Is the United States Losing it Competitive Edge?'. The report "makes clear that the economic argument for greater federal investment in basic research is matched by the national security imperative [and that the U.S.] is investing too little for the new global strategic environment. Research in physics, mathematics, computer sciences and engineering is the basis for military transformation…. A robust research portfolio is a necessary part of national security strategy that relies on knowledge and technology to keep the U.S. safe in a dangerous world." The report warns that there is an underinvestment in basic research for next generation military technology.
September 2006
World Economic Forum: Global Competitiveness (How the U.S. Compares)
Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007 identifies the top ten world's 'most competitive economies' (according to the World Economic Forum - WEF) in rank order as Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Singapore, the U.S., Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The U.S., however, showed a pronounced decline from earlier rankings, falling from first to sixth. The 9 overarching characteristics used to develop the WEF's Global Competitiveness Index include: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomy, health and primary education, higher education and training, market efficiency, technological readiness, business sophistication and innovation. Augusto Lopez-Claros, a primary report author, discussed the U.S. decline in the rankings:
"The United States will remain, for the foreseeable future, one of the most competitive economies in the world, reflecting the existence of a long pipeline of innovation, nurtured by a first class system of higher education. However, two areas are of some concern and if unattended could allow other countries in a highly competitive global economy to challenge the US's privileged position. First, with potentially open-ended expenditure commitments linked to defense and homeland security, ongoing plans to lower taxes further, as well as other longer-term potential claims on the budget, the prospects for sustained fiscal adjustment seem not too bright. With a low savings rate, record-high current account deficits and a worsening of the US's net debtor position, there is a non-negligible risk to both the country's overall competitiveness and, given the relative size of the US economy, the future of the global economy. Second, while the US has, in general, an excellent institutional framework, the quality of the country's public institutions falls somewhat short of the levels of transparency and efficiency seen in other OECD members."
October 2005
U.S. Congress/National Academies: Technological Competitiveness
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future was prepared by the National Academies (NA) at the request of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with endorsement by the House Science Committee. The NA was asked to identify and prioritize those actions that federal policy makers should take to enhance the U.S. science and technology enterprise in order for the U.S. to successfully "compete, prosper and be secure in the global community of the 21st Century." The report identifies 20 specific recommendations under four broader headings: 1) Increasing America's talent pool by vastly improving K-12 science and mathematics education; 2) Sustaining and strengthening the nation's traditional commitment to long-term basic research; 3) Making the U.S. the most attractive setting in which to study and perform research; and 4) Ensuring that the US is the premier place in the world to innovate. This report was the basis for much of the "competitiveness" legislation introduced during the 109th Congress.
