Issues ITIF measured include: human capital, innovation capacity, entrepreneurship, IT infrastructure, economic policy factors and economic performance. "This study is based on the importance of benchmarking global competitiveness and innovation on a variety of factors, not simply policy factors or economic performance," Atkinson said. "It's important to look at the competitiveness of United States, Europe, Asia and the rest of world based on variety of factors -- not just one." While the United States leads Europe, it "is not the runaway leader that some recent studies have found it to be," added Atkinson.

The United States leads Europe in 13 of the 16 indicators, including knowledge (higher education and number of researchers); innovation (corporate and government R&D and scientific publications); IT (investments, e-government, and broadband); overall business climate; entrepreneurship (new firms and venture capital), and productivity. The so-called "EU-15" outperforms the United States in three of the 16 indicators: a lower effective corporate tax, trade performance, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Read more about the report here.