In 1989, the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity produced the Made in America report. One of the recommendations of Made in America was to establish the Industrial Performance Center (IPC) to carry on the interdisciplinary investigations of industrial productivity, innovation, and competitiveness that the Commission had begun. Established in 1991, with the help of a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the IPC has brought together faculty and students from all five MIT Schools in research collaborations on industry. Since its inception, the faculty, students and affiliates of the IPC have produced numerous books, articles, papers and other publications that have advanced the understanding of strategic, technological, and organizational developments in a broad range of industries.

Article | March 21, 2022

Why Innovation Hubs Fail
Ben Armstrong

Ben Armstrong is Executive Director of the Industrial Performance Center and co-leads the Work of the Future Initiative.

Successful innovation hubs depend on who is leading, and how.

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Article | March 21, 2022

Industrial Policy and Local Economic Transformation: Evidence From the U.S. Rust Belt
Ben Armstrong

Ben Armstrong is Executive Director of the Industrial Performance Center and co-leads the Work of the Future Initiative.

State and local governments frequently invest in policies aimed at stimulating the growth of new industries, but studies of industrial policy and related economic development initiatives cast doubt on their effectiveness.

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Article | March 21, 2022

The Puzzle of the Missing Robots
Suzanne Berger

Suzanne Berger is the John M. Deutch Institute Professor of Political Science at MIT.

Ben Armstrong

Ben Armstrong is Executive Director of the Industrial Performance Center and co-leads the Work of the Future Initiative.

Robots in particular are the object of public concerns about employment. But in most American manufacturing plants—particularly small and medium firms.

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Report | March 21, 2022

The Work of the Future: Shaping Technology and Institutions
David Autor

David Autor is Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, co-director of the NBER Labor Studies Program, and co-leader of both the MIT Work of the Future Task Force and the JPAL Work of the Future experimental initiative.

David Mindell

David Mindell, an engineer and historian, is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT.

Elisabeth B. Reynolds

Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future; Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center; Principal Research Scientist; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Economic and social disruptions often accompanied changes, with painful and lasting results for workers, their families, and communities. Along the way, valuable skills, industries, and ways of life were lost.

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Book | January 10, 2022

The Work of the Future, Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines
Elisabeth B. Reynolds

Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future; Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center; Principal Research Scientist; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

David Autor

David Autor is Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, co-director of the NBER Labor Studies Program, and co-leader of both the MIT Work of the Future Task Force and the JPAL Work of the Future experimental initiative.

David Mindell

David Mindell, an engineer and historian, is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT.

Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem.

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Book | April 27, 2021

Compressed Development
Timothy J. Sturgeon

Timothy J. Sturgeon is a Senior Researcher at the IPC.

D. Hugh Whittaker

Tianbiao Zhu

Toshie Okita

This book proposes a new way to approach comparative international development by focusing on time and timing in economic and social development.

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Report | March 21, 2021

Advanced Technology, Advanced Training: A New Policy Agenda for U.S. Manufacturing
Ben Armstrong

Ben Armstrong is Executive Director of the Industrial Performance Center and co-leads the Work of the Future Initiative.

Suzanne Berger

Suzanne Berger is the John M. Deutch Institute Professor of Political Science at MIT.

Bill Bonvillian

The U.S. military relies on manufacturers – particularly small and medium manufacturing firms – to sustain the defense supply chain, and a substantial share of U.S. manufacturing firms count DoD as a customer.

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Article | March 18, 2021

Innovation In Institutions And Technology Can Help Us In The Post-Pandemic Recovery
Elisabeth B. Reynolds

Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future; Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center; Principal Research Scientist; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

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Report | November 20, 2020

The Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines
David Autor

David Autor is Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, co-director of the NBER Labor Studies Program, and co-leader of both the MIT Work of the Future Task Force and the JPAL Work of the Future experimental initiative.

Elisabeth B. Reynolds

Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future; Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center; Principal Research Scientist; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

David Mindell

David Mindell, an engineer and historian, is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT.

MIT President L. Rafael Reif commissioned the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future in the spring of 2018. He tasked us with understanding the relationships between emerging technologies and work, to help shape public discourse around realistic expectations of technology, and to explore strategies to enable a future of shared prosperity.

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Working Paper | September 30, 2020

Strengthening advanced manufacturing innovation ecosystems: The case of Massachusetts
Elisabeth B. Reynolds

Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future; Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center; Principal Research Scientist; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Yilmaz Uygun

Yilmaz Uygun is Professor of Logistics Engineering at Jacobs University, Bremen.

Several studies have highlighted the need to maintain and build manufacturing capabilities to support economic growth and have linked a nation's as well as region's strength in manufacturing to its ability to innovate.

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Working Paper | September 30, 2020

Innovation and Production: Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Trends and Implications for US Cities and Regions
Elisabeth B. Reynolds

Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future; Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center; Principal Research Scientist; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Changes in advanced manufacturing technologies as well as the economics of manufacturing have significant implications for the location and spatial organization of production.

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Book | April 25, 2019

Innovation in Brazil, Advancing Development in the 21st Century
Elisabeth B. Reynolds

Executive Director, MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future; Executive Director, MIT Industrial Performance Center; Principal Research Scientist; Lecturer, Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Ben Ross Schneider

Ben Ross Schneider is the Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT.

Ezequiel Zylberberg

Since the early 2000s, state-led and innovation-focused strategies have characterized the approach to development pursued in countries around the world, such as China, India, and South Korea. Brazil, the largest and most industrialized economy in Latin America, demonstrates both the opportunities and challenges of this approach.

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