How Structure Of Production Determines The Demand For Human Capital

To promote gender equity, expansion of the services sector should be encouraged. But this runs counter to the World Bank and IMF policy of encouraging the production of tradable goods (produced mainly in agriculture and less so in industry) to service debt. So direct government intervention is needed to promote investment in women's human capital.

The role of human capital has diversified considerably in the last 100 years. Today, the prevailing perception seeks a sustainable, integrated development which is based on the triptych of environment, economy, and society. In this mode of development, human capital has a positive effect on the economy, on social cohesion and optimal governance, as well as on the ecological footprint. This book studies the critical role of human capital in the Greek economy and its production structure. In doing so, this book analyzes the Greek labor market, employment, and structural changes, among other facets of this vibrant economy.

The past few decades have seen a revolutionary increase in interest in the economic role of education and training at the societal, business, and individual levels. This is mainly due to the strong post-war growth in industrialized economies, which has been driven by rapid technological progress and far-reaching structural change and, in the end, has resulted in increasingly skill-intensive production and growing demandfor more educated labour. Today it is frequently argued that with the increasing importance of the role of know-how, the workforce has become the most important single input in the production process. Simultaneously the dramatic increase in the availability of large micro-Ievel databases has opened enormous possibilities to study the economic role of human capital creation also empirically. The economic perspective of human capital accumulation is, however, of utmost importance also in times of deep economic recession. Periods of economic slowdown and rapidly increasing unemployment tend to in crease the demandfor advanced education and training in particular. This brings up, in turn, questions regarding overeducation and satisfying both private and social retums on investments in human capital.

Measuring Human Capital addresses a country’s most important resource: its own people. Bettering human capital benefits individuals and their country and leads to improved sustainability for the future. For many years economists only used Gross Domestic Product (GDP), now acknowledged to be inadequate without supplemental measures, to gauge a country’s overall value. There is now a recognition that many variables contribute to a country’s worth, which make accurate measurement difficult. Looking beyond GDP by focusing on human capital, researchers, policymakers, government officials, and students can understand what elements impact human capital and how they might improve it in order to increase economic growth and well-being. Addresses six major measures of human capital, covering at least 130 countries Describes both monetary and index estimates Includes two monetary measures by the World Bank and the Inclusive Wealth Report by UNEP and the Urban Institute of Kyushu University Includes four index measures by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington, United Nations Development Programme, World Economic Forum, and World Bank Includes two country chapters, one on China and the other on the United States

This qualitative case study of an American manufacturing organization describes the barriers which limited its ability to receive maximum return on its investment for training and development resources invested in their human assets. Changing global economics have forced organizations to the realization that their competitive advantage lies in developing and tapping into their human assets or human capital. Professionals, managers, human resource development specialists, and academicians alike have developed theories supporting the systematic development of human assets to improve performance and achieve organizational business goals. This book examines how one organization, typically described as a High Performance Organization, attempted to put theory into application. Specifically, the book examines the concepts of needs assessment, systems theory, organization development, human capital theory, and performance improvement. The results find a systemic failure in human asset development initiatives rooted in the failure to view the organization as a whole, systematically assess performance, and involve the entire organization in designing and implementing a holistic approach to improving performance and developing the organizations human assets. Specifically, inefficient organizational structure and lack of clearly defined business goals were significant barriers to the systematic development of their human assets.

What are the links among industrial structure, segmentation, the internal structure of firms, job characteristics, technology, productivity, labor markets, and product markets? The answers, posited by a distinguished group of sociologists and economists, have gained resonance as the field of economic sociology has grown. In this expanded edition, the editors and their economist colleague, Kevin Lang, explore the theoretical interstices and update the references.Sociologists and economists have responded differently to work within the other discipline. For some sociologists, the typical economic assumption of basic actors engaged in rational action is both unrealistic and objectionable. Other sociologists have not always agreed with everything economists do, they have seen ""rational choice"" as a partially true description of human behavior and as a starting point for sociological theorizing. Among economists, the situation is quite different: most have maintained their basic rational choice model while pushing aggressively into substantive areas previously addressed only by sociologists and political scientists.Industries, Firms, and Jobs is a welcome reassertion of an old tradition of interdisciplinary research. That tradition has recently weakened, largely because of an enormous expansion of the domain of neoclassical economics. The expansion has fed on two scientific developments: human capital theory and contract theory. This book is an invaluable resource for all economists, sociologists, labor specialists, and business professionals.