The Israeli Economy

In 1922, there were ninety thousand Jews in Palestine, a small country in a poor and volatile region. In the twenty-first century, Israel has a population of nine million and is one of the richest countries in the world. The author tells the story of this remarkable transformation, shedding critical light on Israel's rapid economic growth. The author takes readers from those early days to the 2000s, describing how Israel's economic development occurred amid intense fighting with the Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries. He reveals how the new state's astonishing growth continued into the early 1970s, and traces this growth to public investment in education and to large foreign transfers. The author analyzes the costs of the Arab-Israeli conflict, demonstrating how economic output could be vastly greater with a comprehensive peace. He discusses how Israel went through intensive neoliberal economic policies in recent decades, and shows how these policies not only failed to enhance economic performance, but led to significant social inequality. Based on more than two decades of research, this book serves as an in-depth survey of a modern economy that has experienced rapid growth, wars, immigration waves, and other significant shocks. It thus offers important lessons for nations around the world.