In a new report, Structuring U.S. Innovation Policy: Creating a White House Office of Innovation Policy, released today by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Duke Law School professors Stuart Benjamin and Arti Rai propose that the Obama administration (or Congress, if Congress is willing) create an Office of Innovation Policy that would draw upon, and feed into, existing regulatory review processes but would have the specific mission of being the “innovation champion” within these processes.

In this BusinessWeek article ITIF President Rob Atkinson analyzes the cap and trade debate through the lens of the four prevailing economic doctrines in Washington, and argues that an innovation-economics approach to global warming that does not rely just on prices or regulation, but on a proactive “green” innovation strategy is required if we are to successfully reduce our global carbon footprint.

In a recent article in the Houston Chronicle ITIF senior analyst Daniel Castro along with Rice University’s Dan Wallach and Chris Bronk discuss the importance of creating safeguards against cyber attacks. While the government cannot address the threat of cyberspace attacks alone, it can play a meaningful role in fostering the type of public-private partnerships that will be able to help secure our digital infrastructure.

In a testimony before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Rob Atkinson discusses why discriminatory taxes on wireless services have a negative impact on economic growth and innovation.

On Internet Evolution, ITIF discusses the cyber security challenges facing the Obama administration and the role government can play in meeting these challenges.

In the digital world a decade is a long time, yet federal government websites are using the same restrictive policy on “cookies“—small data files stored on a user’s computer—established during the Clinton administration. In this report, ITIF looks at the origins of this federal government policy, the current uses of persistent cookies, and proposes a new framework for the use of persistent cookies on government websites given current trends in e-government. The goal, ITIF argues, should be to loosen the restrictions on the use of cookies and balance privacy against other equally important goals such as usability, accessibility and transparency.

ITIF uses 16 indicators to assess the global innovation-based competitiveness of 36 countries and 4 regions. This report finds that while the U.S. still leads the EU in innovation-based competitiveness, it ranks sixth overall. Moreover, the U.S. ranks last in progress toward the new knowledge-based innovation economy over the last decade.

In a report sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, ITIF employs 29 indicators to assess the extent to which the 50 state economies are structured according to the tenets of the New Economy. The changing economic landscape requires state economies to be innovative, globally-linked, entrepreneurial and dynamic, with an educated workforce and all sectors embracing the use of information technology. The report, which updates and expands on the 2002 and 2007 State New Economy Index reports, ranks the states accordingly. The five states ranking the highest in 2008 are, in order of rank, Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. With these measures as a frame of reference, the report outlines the next generation of innovative state-level public policies needed to meet the challenges of the New Economy, improve state competitiveness and boost incomes of all Americans.

In our 2007 report Digital Prosperity: Understanding the Economic Benefits of the Information Technology Revolution ITIF documented how IT, since the mid-1990s, has been the principal driver of increased economic growth not only in the United States but also in many other nations. However, IT is also at the core of dramatic improvements in the quality of life for individuals around the world. In this new report, we show how IT is the key enabler of many, if not most, of today’s key innovations and improvements in our lives and society—from better education and health care, to a cleaner and more energy-efficient environment, to safer and more secure communities and nations.

A report examining broadband promotion policies in 9 nations finds that while we shouldn’t look to other nations for silver bullets or assume that practices in one nation will automatically work in another, U.S. policymakers can and should learn from broadband “best practices” in other nations. Emulating the right policies here will enable the U.S. to increase our broadband performance faster than in the absence of proactive policies. Based on the findings from other nations, the report proposes 11 policy recommendations to spur both deployment of more ubiquitous and faster networks and adoption of broadband by consumers.

There is disturbing evidence that America’s innovation lead is shrinking. Moreover, expanded support for basic research and science education, while important, will not be enough to respond to this challenge. Without a more robust, targeted, and explicit federal innovation policy, U.S. competitiveness will continue to slip and economic growth will lag. In a new report, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program argue that a critical step in that direction is the establishment of a National Innovation Foundation – a nimble, lean and collaborative entity devoted to supporting firms and other organizations in their innovative activities.

There have been surprisingly few attempts to catalogue what is known about the economic impact of information and communications technology (IT). In a new report, ITIF does just that, examining the impact of IT in five key areas: 1) productivity; 2) employment; 3) more efficient markets; 4) higher quality goods and services; and 5) innovation and new products and services. The report finds that the integration of IT into virtually all aspects of the economy and society is creating a digitally-enabled economy that is responsible for generating the lion’s share of economic growth and prosperity, both here and abroad, including in developing nations. Importantly, the “IT engine” does not appear likely to run out of gas anytime soon and should power robust growth for at least the next decade, provided that policy makers take the right steps. Toward that end the report lays out five key public policy principles for driving digital prosperity: 1) give the digital economy its due; 2) actively encourage digital innovation and transformation of economic sectors; 3) use the tax code to spur IT investment; 4) encourage universal digital literacy and adoption; and 5) do no harm.