Page 50 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

that even offer free repairs (like Patagonia outdoor wear) and
platforms for trading used products are all expanding fast. [40]

The social economy spans other high-growth and job-creating
areas in the fields of caregiving and personal services, education
and health. Investment in childcare, care for the elderly and other
elements of the care economy would create 13 million jobs in the
US alone and 21 million jobs in seven economies, and would lead

to a 2% rise in GDP growth in the countries studied. [41] Education
is also an area of massive job creation, particularly when
considering primary and secondary education, technical and

vocational education and training, university and adult training
together. Health, as the pandemic has demonstrated, requires
much greater investment both in terms of infrastructure and
innovation as well as human capital. These three areas create a

multiplier effect both through their own employment potential and
the long-term benefits they unleash across societies in terms of
equality, social mobility and inclusive growth.

Innovation in production, distribution and business models can

generate efficiency gains and new or better products that create
higher value added, leading to new jobs and economic prosperity.
Governments thus have tools at their disposal to make the shift
towards more inclusive and sustainable prosperity, combining
public-sector direction-setting and incentives with commercial

innovation capacity through a fundamental rethinking of markets
and their role in our economy and society. This requires investing
differently and deliberately in the frontier markets outlined above,

areas where market forces could have a transformative effect on
economies and societies but where some of the necessary
preconditions to function are still lacking (for instance, technical
capacities to sustainably produce a product or asset at scale are
still insufficient, standards are not well defined or legal frameworks

are not yet well developed). Shaping the rules and mechanisms of
these new markets can have a transformational impact on the
economy. If governments want the shift to a new and better kind

of growth, they have a window of opportunity to act now to create
incentives for innovation and creativity in the areas outlined
above.

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