Informing
Policy
for Progress

Tag: 2020

Towards a reform of the tax system

Israel is facing very large fiscal needs as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and the need to upgrade vital public services after a long period of neglect, and therefore tax increases will be inevitable in the near future. At the same time the many flaws of the Israeli tax system call for urgent reform, […]

How Jews Change the world

In this article, published in the Jerusalem Post, Prof. Shlomo Maital tells us about a century of Jewish genius that changed the world. Followed by an interview with Norman Lebrecht, a British journalist and novelist who wrote the book : ”Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947”.

The irrationality of the flood crisis

Every winter we hear about the collapse of urban drainage infrastructure as a result of heavy rains, but the budget of all drainage authorities in Israel for 2020 is only NIS 55 million, while in Nahariya alone, the cost of damage in January 2020 is estimated at NIS 300 million.

Protective layers in the war on Corona: A realistic model for handling pandemics

The way the Covid pandemic has been addressed in Israel has raised significant issues regarding the decision-making process at the national, community and personal level. This project aims at addressing such challenges at the conceptual level. We propose a three tier approach addressing the national, community and personal level.

Crossing the Valley of Death Between Academic Research and Effective Policy

Why does much valuable academic research fail to impact public policy?  I argue that the way forward to relevance and credibility for economics lies through RCT’s – randomized controlled trials, in which the methodology of scientific experimentation joins with the theoretical insights of behavioral economics. By joining the insights of behavioral economics with the rigor […]

National land ownership and housing prices in Israel

Despite the central place that Israel’s housing policy has taken since the 2011 mass protests, and the various policy alternatives that have been considered, one issue has never been placed for public awareness and debate: The fact that Israel – alone among all the members of the OECD – has a land tenure system with […]

Medical research in Israel a wake up call for the government before the next crisis

An analysis of CBS and OECD data on government investments in medical R&D reveals a gloomy picture: only 0.5% of government R&D investments are in the health care sector; the past five years have seen a 20% decline in hospital research funding compared to other OECD countries, Israel is ranked lower in R&D health investments. […]

Industrial symbiosis – barriers for implementation in Israel

Industrial symbiosis is defined as wastes or by‐products of an industry or industrial process that used as a resource or raw materials for another. The purpose of industrial symbiosis is to create loops of materials while minimising the leakage of natural resources as water, energy and waste – demonstrating some key parts of a circular economy, at a local scale […]