The crisis has strengthened national policy efforts directed at creating more competitive economies. This ranges from policies to encourage business start-ups, through to increasing support available for innovation and research – with some initiatives seeking to combine both. Where overall budgets are under pressure, levels of activity relative to other policy areas have often increased. There is a sense that the crisis has not changed the underlying fundamentals of economic growth and that investments in these areas will assist the longer-term transformation of the economy. If anything, there is some evidence that the crisis has caused “countries to think more in terms of longer-term growth and international competitiveness”31.
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