Dan Breznitz, Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was a panelist on a forum about innovation and production hosted by the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution on February 22 in Washington, DC.

The forum, entitled "Why- and Which-Manufacturing Matters: Innovation and Production in the United States," examined manufacturing methods, policies, and export-intensive production.

Breznitz and the other panel members are all CONNECT Innovation Institute scholars from the private sector and academia. During the forum, the panelists presented recommendations regarding specific actions that can ensure competitiveness, particularly at the regional level, in order to enhance the benefits of innovation across society. Breznitz focused on the relationship between innovation and economic growth, as well as innovation policy.

"In order for innovation to help economic growth we can't stop just in the act of inventing, we actually have to come with products and services and continuously improve them and make them cheaper," Breznitz said. "That's where innovation has its true impact on economic growth." 

He continued, "The world has changed. Our theories and, especially, the way we think about policies have not. One of the major changes of the new so-called globalization is that we have fragmented production."

Breznitz was asked by the moderator, Robert Atkinson, to elaborate on industrial policy in terms of innovation and economic growth. He responded, "I would say that if we care... about innovation and economic growth in this country, we have to realize that if we want to excel in producing services and products (most of which are the same thing or are combined), we have to think about the difficult task of coordination across many different companies."

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC.  CONNECT Innovation Institute is a think tank to develop and publish white papers on innovation policy and competiveness in the global economy.