Production in the Innovation Economy

Production in the Innovation Economy emerges from several yearsof interdisciplinary research at MIT on the links between manufacturing and innovation in the UnitedStates and the world economy. (This ambitious research project is described in Making inAmerica: From Innovation to Market, also published in 2013 by the MIT Press.) Authors frompolitical science, economics, business, employment and operations research, aeronautics andastronautics, mechanical engineering, and nuclear engineering come together to explore the extent towhich manufacturing is key to an innovative and vibrant economy.

Chapters includesurvey research on gaps in worker skill development and training; discussions of coproduction withChinese firms and participation in complex manufacturing projects in China; analyses of constraintsfacing American start-up firms involved in manufacturing; proposals for a future of distributedmanufacturing and a focus on product variety as a marker of innovation; and forecasts of powerfuladvanced manufacturing technologies on the horizon. The chapters show that although the globaldistribution of manufacturing is not an automatic loss for the United States, gains from thecolocation of manufacturing and innovation have not disappeared. The book emphasizes public policythat encourages colocation through, for example, training programs, supplements to private capital,and interfirm cooperation in industry consortia. Such approaches can help the United States not onlyto maintain manufacturing capacity but also, crucially, to maximize its innovative potential.Contributors Joyce Lawrence, Richard K. Lester, Richard M. Locke, FlorianMetzler, Jonas Nahm, Paul Osterman, Elisabeth B. Reynolds, Donald B. Rosenfeld, Hiram M. Samel,Sanjay E. Sarma, Edward S. Steinfeld, Andrew Weaver, Rachel L. Wellhausen, Olivier de Weck

Rachel L. Wellhausen is Assistant Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin.