Despite an embarrasingly high unemployment rate, a state budget crisis, and the paralysis of partisan politics in Lansing, Michigan is transitioning its policies to compete in the global knowledge economy as fast as any state in the nation, according to the recently released 2007 State New Economy Index.
The Index, published by the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, measured how quickly individual U.S. states are moving away from the outdated policies of the Industrial Era and towards economies based on information, innovation, and globalization.
To gauge state preparedness for the Digital Age, the Index measured factors such as the number of entrepreneurs who start companies; the number of new patents issued to inventors; and the number of firms that rank among the fastest growing in the nation. It also considers manufacturing competiteveness.
Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, and California topped the rankings. But Michigan placed 19th, up 15 spots from the 1999 Index, making the biggest jump toward an innovation economy than any other state in America.
"In order to succeed in the new global economy, states can no longer rely on a strategy of relentlessly driving down costs and providing large incentives to attract locationally mobile branch plants and offices," said Dr. Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and a principal author the report.
"Rather, these states must create an environment that fosters innovation and high skills in order to help fast growing entrepreneurial and innovative existing firms expand."
Click
here to read the press release about the 2007 State New Economy Index.
Click
here for select links to the full report.
Source: The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
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