Benchmarking EU & U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness

Aug 24, 2011

The Atlantic Century II updates ITIF’s 2009 report on the United States’ innovation-based competitiveness compared with a diverse group of countries. Using 16 key indicators, such as scientists and engineers, corporate and government R&D, venture capital, productivity and trade performance, the 2011 report finds that the United States leads Europe in twelve of the sixteen indicators, including knowledge (higher education and number of researchers); innovation (corporate and government R&D; information technology (IT investments, e-government, and broadband); overall business climate; entrepreneurship (new firms and venture capital), and productivity. The EU-15 leads the United States in just four of the indicators: academic publications, a lower effective corporate tax, trade performance, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows.

The United States lags behind several European nations, including Finland and Sweden. However, it is important to note when making comparisons between individual EU nations and the United States, that there is also significant regional variation within the United States. If we compare individual U.S. states against individual EU nations, the picture is quite different.

Read the whole Report under the following link.

http://itif.org/publications/atlantic-century-ii-benchmarking-eu-us-innovation-and-competitiveness