Economists have long recognized that technological innovation and enhanced communication increase productivity and reduce friction in economic activity. And never before has technology’s impact on economic growth been as evident as it is today.
At IPI, we focus on technology and communications policy not only because it’s critical to economic growth, but also because government’s inherent tendency to regulate prospectively poses an active threat to the economic gains and lifestyle enhancements made possible by technological innovation.
The communications and technology industries are among the country’s most competitive and the biggest capital investors in the U.S. economy, and are thus prime engines of economic growth and job creation. It is critical that public policy encourages continued innovation and investment in the tech sector, and that we don’t limit the innovation upside with counterproductive taxes and regulations.
The FCC Is Cruisin' for Another Bruisin'
In which a federal agency oversteps its legal authority and opposes state efforts to save taxpayer dollars. Again.
What Software Patents Have Wrought: 'A lottery ticket to a lawsuit'
In June, the Supreme Court held that abstract ideas are not patentable and that merely implementing them via computer was not enough to make them so. While this decision provides some help, Congress must act to clarify the situation and end the very real harm to the overall patent system.
The Senate's Plan to Increase Your Taxes
Why would senators want to levy a large tax increase on their own citizens when times are already tough for too many? Good question.
Restoring Our Lost Liberty on the Internet
Updating the 28 year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) could protect the privacy of our electronic communications from the NSA, the IRS, and other federal agencies.
Free-Market Advocates Say FCC's Proposed Internet Regulations Are Unneeded, Harmful to Broadband Deployment Goals
Fourteen groups representing free-market advocates opposed to Internet regulation, filed comments with the FCC, calling on the Commission to delay any effort to issue "Network Neutrality" regulations until Congress has provided the agency clear authority to do so.
Letter to Senator Thune Regarding STELA
IPI recommends passage of a "clean" reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA).
The New Rent Seeking?
When companies resort to lawsuits to gain market advantage, a sort of rent seeking via the courts can be the result.
The Health Care Contradiction: Medicine's Old and New Ways Clash
Innovation is transforming health care, or at least it’s trying. Old practices and laws can create a drag on that new innovation.
Is streaming technology saving the music industry?
When digital downloads took off in the late Nineties, file-sharing services blossomed, too. The industry went into a tailspin as music sales virtually halved over the next decade. One 2007 study by IPI estimated that illegal downloading was costing the US economy $12.5bn a year.
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