Publications

Findings:

An analysis of the production location of U.S. exports—particularly in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas between 2009 and 2010—reveals that:

• U.S. exports grew rapidly in the first year of the nation’s economic recovery. Specifically, U.S. export sales grew by more than 11 percent in 2010 in real terms, the fastest growth since 1997. In terms of job creation, the number of U.S. total export-supported jobs increased by almost 6 percent in 2010, even as the overall economy was still losing jobs.
• Large metropolitan areas powered the nation’s export growth. Taken together, the largest 100 metro areas produced almost 65 percent of U.S. export sales in 2010, three-quarters of the nation’s service export sales and 63 percent of manufacturing export sales. The largest 100 metropolitan areas produced the majority of export sales in 30 states in 2010. Export sales from Midwestern metro areas generated the fastest growth in direct export-production jobs.

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After decreasing in 2010 for the first time in a decade, California's share of U.S. venture capital investment increased from 50.3 percent to 51 percent in 2011, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association Moneytree Survey. The state's share of total U.S. venture deals also increased from 39.3 percent to 40.2 percent. Massachusetts, the second most active venture capital state, received 10.5 percent of venture dollars and 10.4 percent of deals in 2011. Together, the top five states (California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Illinois) received 77.1 percent of all 2011 U.S. venture capital dollars.

The tenth edition of the OECD Science, Technology and Industry (STI) Scoreboard has been published this week by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. With over 180 comparable indicators, it analyses trends in science, technology, innovation and industrial performance in OECD and major non-OECD countries (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, Indonesia, People’s Republic of China and South Africa).

The report shows that the United States is leading the way for research. Forty out of the Top 50 universities with the highest research impact are located in the U.S. and the rest are in Europe. Research and development spending in the U.S. was the highest amount of the countries compared ($400bn in 2009), with China and Japan coming second and third. The report also states that innovation is critical for effectively overcoming the current economic challenges:

For the third year in a row, the U.S. has slipped down on the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual competitiveness survey. The rankings are based on an international survey of 14,000 executives combined with a set of indicators in 12 categories, including infrastructure, economic environment, innovation, and education. Switzerland came in first for the third year in a row, followed by Singapore, Sweden, and Finland. Behind the U.S. were Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The U.S. had been first in 2008. The full report is available on the WEF web site.