Still, it does not come close to eliminating the R. & D. gap between the U.S. and China. The bill is significantly smaller than an earlier Senate proposal, largely because Republicans favored a smaller bill. The current version would spend almost $250 billion over five years, some of it on other items, and probably lift annual federal R. & D. spending by only between 0.05 percent and 0.2 percent of G.D.P.
Some critics argue that sum is unacceptably small and that President Biden and Democrats should pass a more ambitious bill without Republican support. “A bill meant to show the U.S. could own China instead proved how dysfunctional the American political system is,” Vox’s German Lopez wrote. And Noah Smith of Bloomberg Opinion lamented: “Democrats were supposed to fix this.”
Other observers are more positive. The Economist magazine has called the bill “a down payment on innovation in America.” Jonathan Gruber, an M.I.T. economist, told me that the bipartisan support increased the chances that a future Congress and president would expand the investments. “It’s a great start,” Gruber said.
‘Too big a nation’
The bill also includes an intriguing program meant to diversify the geography of American innovation. A small number of metropolitan areas now dominate innovation, including Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, New York and Washington. They have all become expensive places to live, where housing capacity grows slowly.
“We are too big a nation to have all of our innovation concentrated on the coasts,” Gruber said. Two years ago, he and Simon Johnson, another M.I.T. economist, published a book, “Jump-Starting America,” that argued for R. & D. spending that was both larger and more geographically diverse. Their research has influenced senators and staff members who worked on the bill.
In the book, Gruber and Johnson identified cities — like Pittsburgh; Cincinnati; Dallas; Tampa; Rochester, N.Y.; and Tucson, Ariz. — that seemed to have the schools, companies and other infrastructure to become innovation hubs. The Senate bill includes a $10 billion competitive program that will finance R. & D. outside the usual locations.
If innovation clusters become less concentrated on the coasts, Gruber told me, it could also expand the coalition in Congress that supports federal R. & D. spending.
The Link LonkJune 08, 2021 at 05:43PM
https://ift.tt/2T6mFQs
An Investment With a Big Return - The New York Times
https://ift.tt/3d5QSDO
No comments:
Post a Comment