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 book “The Greek Economy and the Crisis. Challenges and Responses” targets all those who think about the present and future of this (culturally) long-lived small geographic region (Greece), to form a personal view of its social and economic problems. A society that repeats the same types of behaviour over the centuries does not do so due to random mistakes. It contains intrinsic forces that affect it. These should be understood, to allow us to delineate future developments. However, the manner in which the social and economic process is perceived must be comprehensive and multidisciplinary: Economics, politics, social psychology and organizational psychology are essential to this analysis. Thus, the book is useful to those seeking information for their professional, scientific and personal development, allowing them to shape their social attitude. It is also useful to those responsible for taking decisions at national, European or enterprise level, in relation to the social and economic problems of Greece.

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.

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.

This book examines the economic interconnections of the Greek economy at a macro and micro level, allowing it to explore both the economic relations between the various sectors and the interconnections of various companies and overlaps in management boards. Two approaches are used to quantify interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral interfaces: the traditional input-output analysis approach and the “influence and information flow” approach through network analysis. The book's first part presents the current conditions and the economic interconnections within the Greek economy. In the second part, during the analysis of microeconomic interconnections between individuals and companies, a much more thorough presentation of the economic interconnections of Greek companies is established. Finally, the book’s third part presents how the Greek economy must transform its production prototype under structural constraints and opportunities for economic diversification and inclusive growth and under the pressure of economic shocks and uncertainty.