Since the early 1990s, American economic performance has been phenomenal. The duration and strength of the nation's growth rates have exceeded the expectations of analysts both within and outside the US government, and private sector investment, especially in computers and information and communications technology (ICT), has boosted the output of its manufacturing workers. This combination of high growth, low inflation, full employment, and technological innovation and adaptation has created what many observers call a 'new economy'.

The objective of this essay is to analyze the policy initiatives undertaken by the American government at both the state and federal levels in advancing the present day high-tech economic environment, with a focus on its role in the area of ICT. Policy development for the ICT sector has been a key focus of government officials for at least two decades, and these policies have been advanced both domestically and internationally. Yet ICT policy has been fashioned within the context of a US's higly decentralized political economy, wich has favoured certain technological developments (e.g. the Internet) over others (e.g. mobile telephony). In assessing the 'lessons' of the US experience for the European Union and other regions that wish to create their own 'new economies', it is important to recognize the constraints placed on technology policy by the political and economic structures in wich it is articulated and carried out.