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Abstract
Dr. Harold Salzman tells a House subcommittee on innovation and technology that new perspectives on competition and new routes for sharing knowledge freely across borders have prompted firms and universities to globalize. Salzman argues that globalization is not prompted by any deficiencies in the domestic supply of trained workers, and that "techno-nationalist" policies of the past are outdated and ineffective.
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Testimony
Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to speak on the topic of globalization, the offshoring of research and development (R&D), and the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. My testimony will address questions about the impact of offshoring and whether the United States has enough scientists and engineers (STEM workers), whether they are getting the education they need, and whether STEM careers are attractive. My analysis draws on research conducted with my colleagues Leonard Lynn at Case Western Reserve University and Lindsay Lowell at Georgetown University and is funded by the Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
We are examining how multinational firms are globalizing their engineering and innovation and changes in the science and engineering education pipeline. Science and engineering (S&E), high-end technology, and innovation work are being offshored as a result of firms’ strategy and organization, global human capital development and flows, and the nature of innovation activity in emerging economies. There is no single cause of offshoring nor are many of the current policy recommendations likely to change the current course of offshoring. The question is what policies will enable the United States to prosper as the new global system develops.
The challenges facing the United States are immense and require new strategies for economic prosperity that do not depend on dominating science, technology, and innovation as the United States has done in the past. Although the depth and breadth of U.S. science, engineering, and innovation are not matched elsewhere in the world, the globalization of technology and innovation work by firms and the increasing globalization of U.S. universities are leading to the rise of centers of innovation across the globe. Within the next decade we should expect to see emerging economies become the location of significant leading-edge innovation even if no one country has the scope of innovation as in the United States. Some of the current policy approaches focus on the wrong responses (e.g., increasing the number of scientists and engineers, particularly through expanded immigration) while not developing approaches that address the current changes in the global landscape. Policies should focus on developing U.S. strengths that make it a key partner in developing global knowledge and innovation, thus enabling the U.S. to be the central node in a global innovation network.
Our findings about the changes in firm strategy, human capital flows, and innovation activity are the basis for analyzing which jobs in the United States are affected by the development of offshore work, skill and education requirements for STEM work in the United States, and STEM workforce supply, and for a set of policy recommendations.
(End of excerpt. The entire testimony is available in PDF format.)
The views expressed are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
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