Guest from Europe Morning on Monday, economist Philippe Aghion, professor at the Collège de France, does not believe that the Covid-19 crisis necessarily requires us to rethink our economic models from the angle of protectionism.

However, he believes that it calls for massive investment in green innovation.

INTERVIEW

The economic forecasts for 2021, in the wake of the health crisis triggered by Covid-19, are particularly gloomy.

From 33,000 business bankruptcies in 2020, France could experience more than 50,000 in 2021, and more than 60,000 in 2022. Unemployment is expected to stand at 11% during the first half of next year.

Has the crisis definitely brought down our economic model and killed globalization?

The economist Philippe Aghion, professor at the College de France, and invited Monday morning from Europe, wants to be optimistic.

In his eyes, the coronavirus crisis has not destroyed our model, but it invites us to rethink its priorities.

"It will not be the end of globalization. I believe that we will always have trade. We will always have an international division of labor", explains Philippe Aghion.

But the Covid-19 has been the revealer of deep problems in Western economies.

"There has been an awareness that France has deindustrialised too much since the early 2000s. We have realized this with products such as respirators, certain active ingredients or masks. realized that this was not only true in these sectors but also in others, such as the manufacture of medicines where we were world leaders, and in which we have lost a little of our leadership ", notes our economist .

"Apart from nuclear and aeronautics, in most sectors, France has lost its leadership, and in particular because it has not invested enough in innovation." 

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Concentrate investments towards "green innovation"

“The idea is not to close factories that have been relocated to China and repatriate them, continues Philippe Aghion. It is rather, in key areas, such as digital, biology or energy, to take back or take control of value chains, more through a policy of business creation and innovation, ”he explains.

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But how can we save our growth model and jobs in the short term, while managing the climate and environmental crisis in the long term?

"The answer is green innovation, that is to say that we must continue to have innovative firms, but innovation must go towards clean technologies", maintains Philippe Aghion.

"The idea is not to produce more, it is to improve our quality of life."

In his view, the State and civil society should jointly spur economic development in this direction in the years to come.

"Consumers will push companies to produce green," predicts Philippe Aghion in particular.