Abstract
This chapter analyzes the role Israeli economists have played as purveyors of pro-market economic ideas and political entrepreneurs of economic liberalization in Israel. Israeli economists were strongly committed to economic liberalism already in the 1950s, but they were lacking decisive political influence. Two mechanisms increased their power over policy. First, long-term institutional changes gradually eroded “political” decision-making mechanism and opened the way to greater involvement of professional economists. This long-term trend was joined and reinforced by economists’ institutional entrepreneurship at the height of the 1980s economic crisis, when they initiated changes of macroeconomic governance. These changes enhanced the political power of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Israel and supported the institutionalization of neoliberalism in Israel.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Neoliberalism as a State Project: Changing the Political Economy of Israel |
Subtitle of host publication | Changing the Political Economy of Israel |
Editors | Asa Maron, Michael Shalev |
Place of Publication | Oxford |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Chapter | 5 |
Pages | 74-90 |
Number of pages | 17 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780198793021 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Ministry of Finance
- economic liberalization
- economists
- institutional change
- macroeconomic governance
- neoliberalism
- policy
- political entrepreneurs
RAMBI publications
- rambi
- Economic development -- Israel
- Economists -- Israel
- Israel -- Economic policy -- 21st century
- Neoliberalism -- Israel