Ira A. Jackson

Harvard University

Dr. Jackson welcomed the participants from the National Research Council, the business sector, several universities, and other organizations, and he offered a brief description of the mission of the Center for Business and Government at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He said that the Center tries to align business with industry and to match market efficiencies with society’s other, competing demands “for equitable outcomes in a process that gains legitimacy and trust.”

He praised Dale Jorgenson for his contributions to this area of study and for leading a program in technology, economy, and productivity at the Kennedy School for the past 17 years. Over that period, he said, Dr. Jorgenson’s program had produced some “20 serious volumes which have had an impact on intellectual and academic understanding of markets, productivity, efficiency, and tax policy,” as well as an important impact on the private sector and on public-sector decision making. He noted that the topic of the day, the semiconductor industry, is critical to all of these areas and has been driving the efficiency, productivity, and growth of the U.S. economy. That economy, he noted, appeared to have lost momentum, and so “we need to apply as much productivity and technological innovation as ever before.”