| Robert D. Atkinson | |
| School Tradition: | Innovation economics |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1954 |
| Birth Place: | Calgary, Alberta |
| Nationality: | Canadian American |
| Field: | Innovation economics Macroeconomics Development economics |
| Alma Mater: | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Oregon |
| Repec Prefix: | e |
| Repec Id: | pat49 |
Robert David Atkinson (born November 22, 1954) is a Canadian-American economist. He is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a public policy think tank based in Washington, D.C., that promotes policies based on innovation economics.[1] [2] He was previously Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute.
Atkinson was born in Calgary, Alberta, on November 22, 1954. He moved to the United States in 1962. He received a B.A. from New College of Florida in 1977, a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon in 1985, and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989, where he was awarded the Joseph E. Pogue Fellowship.[3]
Atkinson worked as a program director at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) from 1989 to 1990. In 1990, he joined the now defunct Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, where he produced reports on the impact of information technology on metropolitan areas and the impacts of environmental regulation and defense downsizing on the economy. From 1996 to 1997, he served as the first executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council. Atkinson became Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) in 1997, where he directed its Technology and New Economy Project.[4]
In 2006, Atkinson left PPI and founded the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, which Ars Technica has described as "one of the leading, and most prolific, tech policy think tanks." In 2008, Atkinson was appointed by the Bush administration as chair of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission.[5] In 2009, he advised the Obama-Biden transition's NIST agency review and Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform teams,[6] and in 2011 the Obama administration appointed him to the National Innovation and Competitiveness Strategy Advisory Board.[7] Atkinson also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.[8]