The Israeli Economy : A Story of Success and Costs"

Abstract:

The talk presents some of the main results of the book by this title. It will focus on why Israel succeeded to catch up with the growth frontier in a region that is much less developed and it will also explore the fact that Israel is still below the advanced countries. I will also discuss some issues of the large high-tech sector in Israel. The talk will then focus on the various costs of the Israeli Arab conflict. It will also show how the Intertemporal approach to the balance of payments can fully account for the large fluctuations in the Israeli trade deficit. Finally, I will present Israel as an experiment in neoliberal policies and show that these did not boost growth, but raised inequality.