PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – With its 198 pages of sometimes dense statistics and jargon, nobody would mistake the new Brookings Institution report on Rhode Island’s economy for a beach read.

Still, Rhode Islanders should pay attention to the findings and recommendations in the study, which was commissioned by Gov. Gina Raimondo and released Tuesday – because it’s likely to influence state leaders’ thinking about policy moving forward.

The study is entitled “Rhode Island Innovates: A Competitive Strategy for the Ocean State,” and it combines an extensive analysis of what’s ailing the local economy with a slate of 36 proposals that the authors think would improve the situation. Here’s a rundown of some of the key parts of the report.

1. The Brookings team is closely connected to Governor Raimondo’s office.

Technically, the Brookings report is a privately funded effort, backed by $1.3 million from foundations and individuals with a connection to the state (The Fascitelli Foundation; The Rhode Island Foundation; The van Beuren Charitable Foundation; Mark Gallogly and Lise Strickler; Stephen and Kristin Mugford; and Thomas R. Wall and his wife).

In practice, though, the report itself says Governor Raimondo “invited” the Brookings team to undertake an analysis of Rhode Island’s economy last spring, and the study released Tuesday is the outcome of six months of work. While the Brookings researchers said they were not directed to reach any specific conclusions by the governor’s office, their views are generally in line with hers, and they were given space by Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor to carry out their work. Therefore it’s reasonable to assume the study gives an idea of where Raimondo wants to take economic policy in the state going forward – which is why it’s gotten so much attention. Still, skeptics rightly note there have been a lot of reports done on Rhode Island’s economy over the last six decades, and question whether this one will have a different impact.

2. Rhode Island’s economy has been having a tough time since the 1970s.

The Brookings report traces the start of the state’s current economic malaise back at least four decades. In a section noting the importance of industries that trade outside of Rhode Island (as opposed to mostly doing business inside the state), the authors say: “The state’s trade sectors – its most critical sources of prosperity – have been losing jobs since the 1970s and are only now stabilizing, much reduced.”

One sign of that is in a reduced standard of living: in 1980 the average Rhode Islander’s personal income was 92% of the average Massachusetts resident’s; by 2013 it was only 82%, according to the report.

The study places a lot of the blame for that on the “calamitous job losses” the state has experienced since 1980 in its advanced manufacturing industries, whose productivity has grown far less than the national average. A striking statistic on that front: “Total advanced industry employment dwindled at a faster rate in Rhode Island than in any other state from 1980 to 2013.”

Why? The authors cite the same issue flagged in an important 2011 study: Rhode Island’s manufacturing mix, in industries such as toys and jewelry, was relatively labor-intensive and low-value-added, making it hugely vulnerable to the rise of China.

3. Rhode Island’s economy has been having a tough time since 2006, too.

It won’t come as news to anyone in Rhode Island that the Great Recession took a huge toll on the state. But the Brookings study notes this wasn’t what observers were probably expecting in 2006, writing: “In the early 2000s, Rhode Island’s economy was a leader in New England and enjoyed relatively strong performance across economic measures relative to the United States.” Want contemporary evidence? Look no further than this October 2006 Boston Globe story on Massachusetts envying its southern neighbor: “The smallest state in the land is in the midst of a giant-size comeback.” Within three months, Rhode Island started losing jobs – and didn’t stop for years.

“Within New England, the state has slipped from leadership on productivity growth, output, and employment gains in the early 2000s to middling status since 2010, after a recession that started earlier and lasted longer than in peer states,” the Brookings report says. “Prior to the recession, the economies of New England states largely moved together. Coming out of the recession, performance has diverged, with Massachusetts and New Hampshire pulling away, Connecticut and Maine falling behind, and Rhode Island drifting in between.”

4. Rhode Island’s economy is in so-so shape now.

The actual state of the Rhode Island economy “is less dire than middling,” in the Brookings researchers’ view. The state has gone from a regional leader before the recession (see #3 above) to a middle-of-the-pack performer now.

As evidence, they point to the state of the job market:

“Basically, the collapse of the state’s legacy advanced industries combined with the too-slow emergence of new ones has left the state without a growth engine,” they argue. “Erosion of the state’s advanced industry base and the failure to nurture new advanced industries has left the state adrift.” (Then they pivot to a pitch for their recommendations: “In order to get back on track, Rhode Island needs to build more resilient, future-oriented industry specializations capable of securing prosperity for the next generation.”)

One interesting side note: the Brookings researchers say it’s hard to analyze Rhode Island’s competitive situation compared with other states. For many places, doing so just means looking at “the core needs of two or three larger industries” – but Rhode Island has “a complicated, fine-grained industry structure made up of many small industries that lack the scale to drive economic prosperity on their own.” Brookings counts 33 “distinct industry clusters” that “comprise the state’s economic base,” with 24 of them employing fewer than 5,000 people.

5. Rhode Island has issues in the innovation department.

At first glance, the Brookings statistics would suggest Rhode Island is in strong shape in terms of innovative research – the state’s universities plus the Naval Undersea Warfare Center spend a lot of money on it, as this chart shows:

“Overall, the state’s university research platform is quite strong,” the Brookings researchers write, “but its commercialization enterprise remains uneven. … What is surprising is how much Rhode Island trails on university technology transfer.” That is, surprisingly little of that money spent on research in Rhode Island leads to the sort of innovative startup activity associated with, say, MIT and Cambridge.

The study also finds Rhode Island lagging on entrepreneurship generally: