New Economy Benchmarking Report Card Available

Innovation indices or "S&T report cards" have grown increasingly popular over the past few years on both state and local levels. The trend has now reached the national level with the release last week of the Progressive Policy Institute's, The State New Economy Index.

An effort funded by the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT) of the U.S. Department of Commerce is expected to be released this fall.

The State New Economy Index is the first collection of 17 indicators of states' relative positions in the changing economy. The indicators are classified into five categories:

• "Knowledge Jobs"  -- three measures are used: office jobs; jobs held by managers, professionals and technicians; and the educational attainment of the workforce
• Globalization -- two measures are used: the export orientation of manufacturing; and foreign direct investment
• Economic dynamism and competition -- three measures are used: the number of jobs in fast-growing companies; business start-ups and failures as a percentage of all companies; and initial public offerings
• Transformation to a digital economy -- four measures are used: the percentage of adults online; the number of ".com" domain name registrations; technology in schools: and the degree to which state and local governments use information technologies to deliver services
• Technological innovation capacity -- five measures are used: number of high tech jobs; number of scientists and engineers in the workforce; number of patents issued; industry investment in R&D; and venture capital activity

Each state's performance for the five groups of indicators is aggregated, weighted and ranked. The result, an overall score for the state relative to the other states, is presented in the table accompanying this article. The total possible points is 100 if a state were to be number one in every indicator.

The State New Economy Index provides a description of each indicator, each state's score and position relative to the other states for the indicator, and an explanation of the weighting and overall scoring method. The Progressive Policy Institute's website provides state-by-state summaries of all 17 indicators.

The report also advances five broad recommendations of strategies for states to take to strengthen their economic performance in the digital economy. Each recommendation, listed below, includes several more specific suggestions to consider:

• co-invest with industry in workforce skill development;
• co-invest in an innovation infrastructure;
• promote innovation and customer-oriented govt.;
• foster the transformation to a digital economy; and,
• foster civic collaboration.

The report may be viewed and downloaded at: www.neweconomy.org/states  or directly from http://207.158.225.143/states/ . Print copies are also available from the Progressive Policy Institute.

Rank

State

Score

Rank

State

Score

1

MA

82.27

26

HI

46.14

2

CA

74.25

27

KS

45.80

3

CO

72.32

28

ME

45.62

4

WA

68.99

29

RI

45.31

5

CT

64.89

30

NC

45.16

6

UT

63.98

31

TN

45.14

7

NH

62.45

32

WI

44.92

8

NJ

60.86

33

OH

44.77

9

DE

59.87

34

MI

44.59

10

AZ

59.23

35

MO

44.24

11

MD

59.16

36

NE

41.81

12

VA

58.76

37

IN

41.95

13

AL

57.70

38

SC

39.69

14

MN

56.53

39

KY

39.40

15

OR

56.10

40

OK

38.63

16

NY

54.48

41

WY

34.49

17

TX

52.31

42

IA

33.51

18

VT

51.87

43

SD

32.33

19

NM

51.43

44

AL

32.28

20

FL

50.75

45

ND

28.99

21

NV

49.03

46

MT

28.98

22

IL

48.37

47

LA

28.22

23

ID

47.93

48

WV

26.79

24

PA

46.72

49

AR

26.22

25

GA

46.61

50

MS

22.63

US Average

48.07