Economy Archives - Page 27 of 81 - Progressive Policy Institute

The App Economy in Thailand

Posted on January 25, 2018 by The Progressive Policy Institute

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, that initiated a profound and transformative new economic innovation. While central bankers and national leaders struggled with a deep financial crisis and stagnation, the fervent demand for iPhones, and the wave of smartphones that followed, was a rare force for growth.

Today, there are 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions, an unprecedented rate of adoption for a new technology. Use of mobile data is rising at 65 percent per year, a stunning number that shows its revolutionary impact. More than just hardware, the smartphone also inaugurated a new era for software developers around the world. Apple’s opening up of the App Store in 2008, followed by Android Market (now Google Play) and other app stores, created a way for iOS and Android developers to write mobile applications that could run on smartphones anywhere.

The App Economy in Vietnam, 2017

Posted on January 23, 2018 by The Progressive Policy Institute

More than just hardware, the smartphone also inaugurated a new era for software developers around the world. Apple’s opening up of the App Store in 2008, followed by Android Market (now Google Play) and other app stores, created a way for iOS and Android developers to write mobile applications that could run on smartphones anywhere.

Regulation and the Productivity Revolution in Japan’s Handset Market

Posted on January 19, 2018 by The Progressive Policy Institute

The Progressive Policy Institute has long been focused on the interaction between regulation and innovation across the United States, Europe, and Asia.We are particularly concerned with the broad class of pricing of innovative products and services.

From this perspective, we note that the Japanese government, acting through the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), has required or encouraged mobile providers to reduce or eliminate their subsidies for consumer purchases of smartphone handsets. The government’s explicit goal is to persuade the providers to use the money saved from reduced subsidies to lower rates for long-term consumers.

Press Release: PPI Report Highlights How Policy Can Drive New, Digitally Enabled Manufacturing Growth & Economic Revitalization

Posted on January 4, 2018 by The Progressive Policy Institute

Report uses Upstate New York as case study for potential economic boon from ‘Internet of Goods’

WASHINGTON —The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) today released a new report by Chief Economic Strategist Michael Mandel highlighting how the next wave of digitally-driven manufacturing – an essential part of what he calls the “Internet of Goods” – has the potential to revitalize local economies across the country under the right public policies. The report uses the conditions in Upstate New York – particularly the region from Buffalo to Rochester to Syracuse – as a real-world test bed to determine best practices for attracting and retaining Internet of Goods industries.

“Because new Internet of Goods industries incorporate real-time data and advanced analytics into their business practices, high-speed high-capacity mobile broadband is essential. … What’s needed are policies that encourage broadband companies to bring high-speed broadband networks to these areas of the country that are ideally suited for digitally-driven manufacturing companies, while not taking actions that delay or depress the build-out of these networks by making it cost prohibitive to build them.”

“With its world-class universities, access to interstate highways and shipping routes, educated workforce, and ample building space vacated by former manufacturing plants and other industries, [Upstate New York] possesses many essential qualities to forge a robust Internet of Goods economy,” Mandel writes.

Mandel argues the next generation of wireless broadband networks, usually called 5G networks, are essential infrastructure for the Internet of Goods. They provide enough bandwidth to power driverless trucks, guide drones without interruption, and support digital manufacturing. These networks will be built on millions of small cells throughout the country — in buildings or outdoors on utility poles, light poles, traffic lights, or exterior walls of buildings — and can transmit a lot of data over a short range. Thus, a robust broadband network needs to have many cells.

However, in terms of attractiveness for small cell build-out, Mandel writes, Upstate New York starts out with a handicap relative to comparable regions due to lower GDP density. On top of that, local government policies are hindering the deployment of small cells or 5G networks by imposing or considering new and prohibitive costs on the installation of the equipment needed to bring high-speed mobile broadband to the region.

“As a result, broadband companies will find alternative sites for building out their networks, jeopardizing not only the future of new industries that have located Upstate, but also closing the door to future industries and revenues they would generate,” Mandel concludes.

“Upstate New York should complement its universities, workforce, transportation and affordable land advantages by encouraging the essential high-speed, high-capacity broadband network to power future industries and create jobs.”

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The Internet of Goods and a Revitalized Economy: Upstate New York as a Template

Posted on January 4, 2018 by The Progressive Policy Institute

A revival in local manufacturing could provide a new source of jobs for areas of the country that have suffered disproportionate job losses in recent years. The key to this revitalization is integrating digital technology into every stage of the research, development, distribution and delivery of the goods produced. We call this integration the Internet of Goods and believe it is poised to revitalize physical industries such as manufacturing, agriculture and transportation.

Based on new business models, as well as new technology, digitally-driven manufacturing can provide an essential jumping-off point for growth. As we recently wrote in a policy report:

We believe that, through additive manufacturing and other new technologies, combined with the new faster local distribution networks, there is the possibility of creating new business models for manufacturing. In particular, there is the potential for the revival of small-scale manufacturing operations, relatively close to customers, making small-batch and custom goods.

Digitally-driven manufacturers won’t locate in dense urban areas where land prices are high and logistics for transporting the manufactured goods are complex, time consuming and expensive. Instead, they will gravitate to areas of the country that have sufficient, available land; have a strong base of workers comfortable with technology; and have access to a high-capacity broadband network infrastructure.

PPI Tech Job Index 2017: States

Posted on January 3, 2018September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

Tech and tech-enabled jobs are becoming increasingly important to many state economies–not just the tech hubs like California and Texas. Particularly important is the role of ecommerce, which is driving the creation of hundreds of thousands of tech-enabled electronic shopping and fulfillment center jobs around the country (for example, see here). Going forward, we expect tech-enabled manufacturing to help revive job growth in areas that were hit hit hard by the decline in factory jobs (for example, see here).

For this study, we define the PPI Tech Job Index for a state or local area as the increase in tech and tech-enabled jobs from 2010 to 2016, as a percentage of the total number of private sector jobs in that state or local area in 2010. Thus, the PPI Tech Job Index serves as a measure of the importance of tech growth to the economy of that state.

The industries that we include, and their NAICS codes, are listed below in Table 1. These include computer and electronics manufacturing, electronic shopping, software publishing, internet publishing and search, computer systems and programming, management and technical consulting, and the increase in warehousing jobs since 2007. As we have shown in earlier work, this last category picks up the growth of employment in ecommerce fulfillment centers, which do not yet have their own industry.

Table 1:	Tech and tech-enabled industries
334	Computer and electronics manufacturing
4541	Electronic shopping
5112	Software publishing
51913	Internet publishing and search
5415	Computer systems design and programming
5416	Management and technical consulting
493	Warehousing (change since 2007, reflects ecommerce fulfillment)

Table 2 below shows the top states, ranked by the PPI Tech Job Index. We can see Washington at the top, propelled by Amazon’s growth. And California, not surprisingly, is in the top 5. But the top 10 also includes states such as Utah, Tennessee, and Georgia, with North Carolina, Missouri, and Indiana not far behind. Utah’s high ranking is due to growth in computer systems design and programming, and electronic shopping jobs, while Tennessee showed strong gains in ecommerce, computer systems design and programming, and management and technical consulting. Missouri’s ranking came from gains in computer systems design and programming, while Indiana benefited from growth in ecommerce and computer systems design and programming. Massachusetts’ ranking is dragged down a bit because of the continuing decline of tech hardware jobs.

The conclusion: The economic impact of tech and tech-enabled jobs reaches across the entire country. We will shortly be publishing a more detailed study where we look at the PPI Tech Job Index for individual counties.

Table 2	PPI Tech Job Index: Top States
		PPI Tech Job Index*	Tech jobs created, 2010-2016 (thousands)
1	Washington	3.4%	77.2
2	Utah	2.8%	26.2
3	California	2.1%	256.9
4	Tennessee	2.0%	42.2
5	South Carolina	1.9%	26.5
6	Texas	1.8%	146.7
7	Delaware	1.7%	5.7
8	Colorado	1.6%	29.0
9	Georgia	1.6%	49.0
10	North Carolina	1.6%	48.9
11	Missouri	1.5%	31.9
12	Massachusetts	1.5%	40.7
13	Indiana	1.5%	34.2
14	Oregon	1.4%	18.8
15	Minnesota	1.3%	28.3
16	Illinois	1.3%	58.9
17	Florida	1.2%	74.3
18	New York	1.2%	84.7
19	New Jersey	1.2%	38.3
20	Kentucky	1.2%	16.8
21	Virginia	1.2%	33.3
22	Pennsylvania	1.1%	53.5
23	Maryland	1.1%	21.1
24	Oklahoma	1.0%	11.8
25	Nevada	1.0%	9.7

*Change in tech and tech-related jobs from 2010 to 2016, as a percentage of total private sector jobs in 2010.

Data: BLS QCEW, PPI

Happy Holidays from PPI

Posted on December 19, 2017September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

It’s been a surreal political year, but PPI has much to celebrate this holiday season. Throughout 2017, we expanded our productive capacity and the scope of our political and media outreach significantly. For example, PPI organized 150 meetings with prominent elected officials; visited 10 state capitals and 10 foreign capitals, published an influential book and more than 40 original research papers, and hosted nearly 30 private salon dinners on a variety of topical issues.

Best of all, we saw PPI’s research, analysis, and innovative ideas breaking through the political static and changing the way people think about some critical issues, including how to revive U.S. economic dynamism, spread innovation and jobs to people and places left behind by economic growth, and modernize the ways we prepare young people for work and citizenship.

Let me give you some highlights:

This fall, David Osborne’s new book, Reinventing America’s Schools, was published on the 25th anniversary of the nation’s first charter school in Minnesota. David, who heads PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools project, documents the emergence of a new “21^st Century” model for organizing and modernizing our public school system around the principles of school autonomy, accountability, choice, and diversity. David is just winding up a remarkable 20-city book tour that drew wide attention from education, political, and civic leaders, as well as the media. Because David is a great storyteller, as well as analyst, it’s a highly readable book that offers a cogent picture of a K-12 school system geared to the demands of the knowledge economy. It makes a great holiday gift!

Dr. Michael Mandel’s pioneering research on e-commerce and job creation also upended conventional wisdom and caught the attention of top economic commentators. Dr. Mandel, PPI’s chief economic strategist, found that online commerce has actually created more jobs in retail than it destroys, and that these new jobs (many in fulfillment centers in outlying areas) pay considerably better than traditional ones. His research buttresses the main premise of PPI’s progressive pro-growth agenda: that spreading digital innovation to the physical economy will create new jobs and businesses, raise labor productivity, and reduce inequality.

PPI challenged the dubious panacea of “free college” and proposed a progressive alternative – a robust system of post-secondary learning and credentials for the roughly 70 percent of young Americans who don’t get college degrees. PPI Senior Fellow Harry Holzer developed a creative menu of ways to create more “hybrid learning” opportunities combining work-based and classroom instruction. And PPI Senior Fellow Anne Kim highlighted the inequity of current government policies that subsidize college-bound youth (e.g., Pell Grants), but provide no help for people earning credentials certifying skills that employers value.

Building on last year’s opening of a PPI office in Brussels, we expanded our overseas work considerably in 2017. In January, I endeavored to explain the outcome of the U.S. election to shell-shocked audiences in London, Brussels, and Berlin. In April, we led our annual Congressional senior staff delegation to Paris, Brussels, and Berlin to engage European policymakers on the French presidential election and other U.S-E.U. issues, including international taxation, competition policy, and trade. PPI also took its message of data-driven innovation and growth to Australia, Brazil, Japan and a number of other countries.

Other 2017 highlights included a strategy retreat in February with two dozen top elected leaders to explore ideas for a new, radically pragmatic agenda for progressives; a Washington conference with our longtime friend Janet Napolitano (now President of the University of California system) on how to update and preserve NAFTA; public forums in Washington on pricing carbon, infrastructure, tax reform, and other pressing issues; creative policy reports on varied subjects; and a robust output of articles, op-eds, blogs, and social media activity.

I’m also happy to report many terrific additions to PPI in 2017. Rob Keast joined to manage our external relations and new policy development; Paul Bledsoe assumed a new role as Strategic Adviser as well as guiding our work on energy and climate policy; and Emily Langhorne joined as Education Policy Analyst. We will also be adding a fiscal project next year.

All this leaves us poised for a high-impact year in 2018. In this midterm-election year, our top priority will be crafting and building support for a new progressive platform — a radically pragmatic alternative to the political tribalism throttling America’s progress. That starts with new and better ideas for solving peoples’ problems that look forward, not backward, and that speak to their hopes and aspirations, not their anger and mistrust.

It’s a tall order, and we cannot succeed without your help and support. Thanks for all you have done over past years, and we look forward to working with you in 2018.

Happy holidays and New Year!

How to Modernize and Strengthen NAFTA

Posted on November 17, 2017 by The Progressive Policy Institute

If there is one thing that negotiators from the United States, Mexico and Canada agree on, it is that NAFTA should be updated and improved to the mutual benefit of the three partners. The question is how to do so. To grapple with that question, the University of California and Tecnológico de Monterrey, the largest not-for-profit private university in Mexico, in partnership with the Progressive Policy Institute and COMEXI (the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations), convened a gathering of high-level North American government and business leaders, diplomats and trade scholars at the university’s Washington, D.C. conference center on September 21, 2017. Negotiators from the U.S., Mexico and Canada convened in Washington on October 11th to resume talks on modernizing and strengthening the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The impetus for these talks comes from

President Trump, who has fiercely criticized NAFTA and is demanding changes aimed at reducing U.S. trade deficits and “bringing back” U.S. manufacturing jobs. The Trump Administration wants to wrap up an agreement on a modified treaty by the end of the year.

That’s an ambitious timetable, considering the White House’s lengthy list of negotiating objectives — and concerns in Canada and Mexico that President Trump views trade as a zero-sum game. The unspoken question hovering over the talks is this: Can Trump find a way for America to “win” in trade without Mexico and Canada losing?

Gerwin for US News, “Trump the NAFTA Terminator”

Posted on November 15, 2017 by The Progressive Policy Institute

The president is making moves to terminate NAFTA without considering the economic and legal repercussions.

Donald Trump has few positive achievements as president. But the man famous for firing people has certainly shown a knack as a terminator: Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and terminated a variety of other Obama administration initiatives.

Now, Trump is seemingly set on terminating NAFTA, which he’s derided as “the worst trade deal ever.” Congress must stop Trump before he kills again.

Congress has been remarkably mute on Trump’s threats to NAFTA, even though the Constitution empowers Congress “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations” and much of the president’s authority on trade is based on laws passed by Congress. It’s time for Congress to use its powers – and broader influence – to prevent Trump from damaging U.S. trade, destroying jobs and sowing economic uncertainty by recklessly withdrawing from NAFTA.

Continue reading at U.S. News.