ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the importance of the productive capabilities of a country as a determinant of the depth and impact of the crisis. The one hand, anti-crisis policies are calling for fiscal consolidation, but on the other hand, technology policy and the agenda for an integrated industrial policy are calling for investment in human resources. Typical analyses of the crisis focus on macro-issues, public deficits and debt, bubbles or financial factors. In fact, most interpretations regard the Greek as well as the euro area crisis as a macroeconomic issue and an outcome of macroeconomic mismanagement. In addition to domestic macroeconomic mismanagement and the institutional mismanagement of the Eurozone, the crisis was also the outcome of the long-term accumulation of structural weaknesses, policy choices and political attitudes and behaviours. The success of an industrial policy aimed at the reinforcement and transformation of the country's productive base implies the possibility of transcending the established dichotomy of market and state failure.
