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23 Results

Partners With Purpose

By: Allen S. Grossman, Ann Lombard, and Jan W. Rivkin
Superintendents find new, deeper ways to work with business beyond a financial gift.

What It Takes to Reshore Manufacturing Successfully

This paper looks at some of the issues firms moving large assembly operations back to the U.S. have faced, along with recommendations for more successful implementations.

Recent Research on Competitiveness and Clusters: What are the Implications for Regional Policy?

By: Christian Ketels
A new framing of competitiveness clarifies the role of regions.
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What Washington Must Do Now: An Eight-Point Plan to Restore American Competitiveness

Policy steps for the president and Congress to follow in order to make American companies more competitive and their employees more prosperous.

What Business Should Do to Restore U.S. Competitiveness

Business leaders should not simply accept the business environment as a given, set by government. They can—and should—enhance the commons in ways that boost their own long-run profits.

A Better Way to Tax U.S. Businesses

The U.S. corporate tax code is broken. High rates and perverse incentives drive capital away from the corporate sector and toward other uses and countries. Professor Mihir A. Desai believes a handful of changes could fix all that.
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Special Report: Restoring U.S. Competitiveness

Some of the world’s most original thinkers explain the competitiveness challenge America faces and point the way forward.

Choosing the United States

Over the last four decades companies have dispersed more and more of their activities across the globe. Data and analysis from Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin suggest that the U.S. is losing out on location decisions at an alarming rate, even for high value adding activities such as R&D that it should be able to attract.

Does America Really Need Manufacturing?

Manufacturing matters to a nation’s economic prosperity, not because it is an important source of jobs (it currently represents only about 10% of US employment) but because manufacturing competence is often an integral part of innovation. By Professors Gary P. Pisano and Willy C. Shih.

Fixing What's Wrong with U.S. Politics

In thinking about the competitiveness of a nation, analysts commonly focus on economic factors, such as exports, unit labor costs, and fiscal policy, among others. "Politics" is not typically high on the list, if it appears at all, observes Professor David Moss.

Green Rules to Drive Innovation

Daniel C. Esty and Steve Charnovitz argue that a commitment to sustainability and strong environmental results will likely enhance national as well as company-scale competitiveness.

How to Make Finance Work

Professors Robin Greenwood and David Scharfstein make recommendations in three important domains in which the U.S. financial system has underperformed: financial stability, housing finance, and investment costs.

Macroeconomic Policy and U.S. Competitiveness

Across the political spectrum, there is consensus that the United States faces challenges to its competitiveness. Current U.S. fiscal policy is, unfortunately, part of the problem rather than the solution, according to Professors Richard H.K. Vietor and Matthew C. Weinzierl.

Rethinking School

The United States must recognize that our long-term growth depends on dramatically increasing the quality of our K-12 public education system, according to Stacey Childress.

Reviving Entrepreneurship

Professors Josh Lerner and William A. Sahlman explore the role of entrepreneurial ventures in addressing pressing problems like energy, the environment, healthcare, and education, while also driving productivity and domestic job growth in the U.S.

The Incentive Bubble

The last three decades have seen American capitalism transformed by a simple idea—that the evaluation and compensation of managers and investors should be outsourced to financial markets, says Professor Mihir A. Desai.

The Looming Challenge to U.S. Competitiveness

Professors Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin frame the HBS project on U.S. competitiveness by defining "competitiveness," assessing the state of U.S. competitiveness, and pinpointing dynamics that threaten America's competitiveness.

Why U.S. Competitiveness Matters to All of Us

The world is interdependent, and the U.S. economy is still too large for anyone to profit from a rapid decline in its well-being.

A Jobs Compact for America's Future

Without a well-trained, well-paid, continuously improving workforce the United States cannot compete with other nations effectively—and won’t be able to sustain high and rising living standards. Yet at all levels of the economy, we behave as if we don’t believe that.

Shattering the Myths About U.S. Trade Policy

By: Robert Z. Lawrence and Lawrence Edwards
A free and fair global trading system can result in economic win-wins. Open borders allow companies to grow in foreign markets and, simultaneously, ensure that businesses remain competitive at home.