Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century

The Department of Commerce (DOC) is announcing the second meeting of the Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century Economy Advisory Committee. The meeting is open to the public and will be held on September 12, 2007.

Earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez assembled a group of 15 leaders, comprised of corporate and academic minds, to help solve a puzzling question: How can the government develop a measurement for innovation in order to encourage investment and competitiveness in the U.S. economy? The meeting was the first of its kind to be a part of the national discussion on economic growth.

The origins of the group lie in the Bush Administration's interest in statistical analysis of growth and productivity, a Commerce Department official says. The committee has a charter of two years, and in that time, the government hopes that business and academic insight will help it devise a method for measuring innovation.

Although many companies offer financial incentives for innovations, such as patents, it became apparent at the committee's first meeting that none of the companies represented on the panel have a single standard by which to measure innovation.

Some of the committee's most insightful observations have come from its academic members. For example, Rajesh Chandy, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota, points out that whatever method the U.S. uses to measure innovation, it will need to be compared with information from other countries as well. The U.S. will need to decide if it wants to use its own standards to measure the rest of the world's innovation, or rely on data from other countries, which might not be as accurate.

The committee, it seems, is faced with an almost impossible challenge because the views on the panel and the nature of their businesses are so wide-ranging. However, the Commerce Department believes the committee is up to the task.

"We believe the work of this group will have a lasting impact," Gutierrez says. "Whatever we do decide to measure will ultimately be something that drives the whole economy."

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