Assaf Razin
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262037341
- eISBN:
- 9780262344234
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037341.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
The book objective is two-fold: First, the book provides rigorous analysis of some of the major globalization episodes during the decade's long emergence of the economy of Israel. Second, the book ...
More
The book objective is two-fold: First, the book provides rigorous analysis of some of the major globalization episodes during the decade's long emergence of the economy of Israel. Second, the book spells out, empirically, how the globalization played a crucial role in advancing Israel's economic progress. That is, economists and policy makers can gain insights as to how a globalized economy takes advantage of international trade, labor mobility, its international financial links, and at the same time push up against globalization headwinds, such as those triggered by the 2008 global financial crisis. A general lesson which comes out is that once a gradual opening up process is set, time-consistent macroeconomic policy is adapted, and well-regulated institutional setup is put in place, Israel’s economy has been able ride on growth-enhancing globalization flows, and weather its chilly storms. The book analyzes these game-changing events, evaluates their role in Israel remarkable development, and compares these developments to groups of developed and emerging- market economies in similar circumstances. To gain broader perspective, the book also looks back into recent history. The unique saga of Israel’s high-inflation crisis and the long period where it rebuilt the major financial, and monetary institutions, and regulatory bodies. These elements provided better macroeconomic stability and help mitigate business cycle fluctuations, and get the economy through military conflicts and boycotts. The book also surveys trending developments that remain challenging. The exceptionally high fertility among ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arab minority, increasing portions of the population, is the main reason for the flagging labor-force participation. High fertility diminishes skill attainment. A rise in income inequality in all advanced economies, which also takes place in Israel, has a potential for setting off social-political divide. In the case of Israel, its fast development came, however, at the cost of rising income inequality and social polarization. Israel now has the most unequal distribution of income among OECD countries and its public education has declined from one of the best to one of the worst in the OECD. Israel’s income redistributive policies, from rich to poor, from healthy to the sick and from young to old, is significantly less comprehensive in scope, compared to the European systems. It has been becoming even less so over the last decades. Israel has an unusually high fertility rate among the developed economies. The book endeavors to marry economic theory, empirical evidence, and narrative presentation. It does so in a way that is enlightening to the specialist, but remains digestible for the non-professional reader. It provides an opportunity for the reader to look through the rear mirror at the saga of Israel’s high-inflation, and the inflation conquest. To connect to the earlier literature, the book provides a review of books surveys of the earlier phases in the development of the economy of Israel. There could be at least two potential groups of readers: a. Policy makers, academic and non-academic (international institutions, banks, etc.) researchers and students interested in the Israeli Economy; b. Policy makers, academic and non-academic researches, interested in the effects of globalization; and, c. Advanced undergraduate, and graduate students in international macroeconomics courses.Less
The book objective is two-fold: First, the book provides rigorous analysis of some of the major globalization episodes during the decade's long emergence of the economy of Israel. Second, the book spells out, empirically, how the globalization played a crucial role in advancing Israel's economic progress. That is, economists and policy makers can gain insights as to how a globalized economy takes advantage of international trade, labor mobility, its international financial links, and at the same time push up against globalization headwinds, such as those triggered by the 2008 global financial crisis. A general lesson which comes out is that once a gradual opening up process is set, time-consistent macroeconomic policy is adapted, and well-regulated institutional setup is put in place, Israel’s economy has been able ride on growth-enhancing globalization flows, and weather its chilly storms. The book analyzes these game-changing events, evaluates their role in Israel remarkable development, and compares these developments to groups of developed and emerging- market economies in similar circumstances. To gain broader perspective, the book also looks back into recent history. The unique saga of Israel’s high-inflation crisis and the long period where it rebuilt the major financial, and monetary institutions, and regulatory bodies. These elements provided better macroeconomic stability and help mitigate business cycle fluctuations, and get the economy through military conflicts and boycotts. The book also surveys trending developments that remain challenging. The exceptionally high fertility among ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arab minority, increasing portions of the population, is the main reason for the flagging labor-force participation. High fertility diminishes skill attainment. A rise in income inequality in all advanced economies, which also takes place in Israel, has a potential for setting off social-political divide. In the case of Israel, its fast development came, however, at the cost of rising income inequality and social polarization. Israel now has the most unequal distribution of income among OECD countries and its public education has declined from one of the best to one of the worst in the OECD. Israel’s income redistributive policies, from rich to poor, from healthy to the sick and from young to old, is significantly less comprehensive in scope, compared to the European systems. It has been becoming even less so over the last decades. Israel has an unusually high fertility rate among the developed economies. The book endeavors to marry economic theory, empirical evidence, and narrative presentation. It does so in a way that is enlightening to the specialist, but remains digestible for the non-professional reader. It provides an opportunity for the reader to look through the rear mirror at the saga of Israel’s high-inflation, and the inflation conquest. To connect to the earlier literature, the book provides a review of books surveys of the earlier phases in the development of the economy of Israel. There could be at least two potential groups of readers: a. Policy makers, academic and non-academic (international institutions, banks, etc.) researchers and students interested in the Israeli Economy; b. Policy makers, academic and non-academic researches, interested in the effects of globalization; and, c. Advanced undergraduate, and graduate students in international macroeconomics courses.
Assaf Razin
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262037341
- eISBN:
- 9780262344234
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262037341.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
A more generous welfare state (particularly with an aging population) has financing needs that immigrants could fill. With high-skilled immigrants more likely to pay in rather than draw on the ...
More
A more generous welfare state (particularly with an aging population) has financing needs that immigrants could fill. With high-skilled immigrants more likely to pay in rather than draw on the welfare state, more generous welfare states are more inclined to try to attract high skilled. Israel ranks third in the world in the number of university graduates per capita, after the United States and the Netherlands. It possesses the highest per capita number of scientists in the world, with 135 for every 10,000 citizens (compared to 85 per 10,000 in the United States). Israelis took full advantage of the immigration skill bias. When examining the index for educated émigrés, i.e., those with a college degree, the average index is 12.41 and Israel's index is more than three times higher, 41.45. Using this index, Israel is higher than Portugal and the gap between Israel and Ireland (49.09) narrows considerably.Less
A more generous welfare state (particularly with an aging population) has financing needs that immigrants could fill. With high-skilled immigrants more likely to pay in rather than draw on the welfare state, more generous welfare states are more inclined to try to attract high skilled. Israel ranks third in the world in the number of university graduates per capita, after the United States and the Netherlands. It possesses the highest per capita number of scientists in the world, with 135 for every 10,000 citizens (compared to 85 per 10,000 in the United States). Israelis took full advantage of the immigration skill bias. When examining the index for educated émigrés, i.e., those with a college degree, the average index is 12.41 and Israel's index is more than three times higher, 41.45. Using this index, Israel is higher than Portugal and the gap between Israel and Ireland (49.09) narrows considerably.
