The Lessons of Israel's Great Inflation

by Haim Barkai

Overview

This analysis of Israel's successful stabilization program challenges current thinking on macroeconomic policy. It reviews and examines the take-off of runaway inflation and of the subsequent stabilization policy in what can be seen as laboratory conditions. Since Israel's stabilization policy is one of only two which have actually succeeded, it offers important lessons to all East European and many Latin American countries in the design and implementation of these programs. Professional economists concerned with macroeconomics, money, credit and banking, monetary and banking theory, economic policy, and inflation and stabilization, as well as Latin American and East European scholars, will find this work extremely informative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275951467
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/20/1995
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

HAIM BARKAI is Sapir Professor of Economics at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He has served as Chairman of the Department of Economics and as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. He was also a fellow of the Falk Institute of Economic Research in Jerusalem. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, he was a board member and later chairman of the Advisory Committee and Board of the Bank of Israel. He also served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Sector Salaries and as a member of the Bank of Israel Committee on Banking Policy.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
The Take-Off of Israel's Great Inflation
Introduction
Backstage
The Revving-Up Phase
Breaking the Single-Digit Barrier and the Following Lull
The Brakes are Off: 1972/IV-1973/III
The Political Economy of the Take-Off
The Role of Monetary Policy in Israel's 1985 Stabilization Effort
Introduction
A Comparative Review of the Austral, Cruzado, and Sheqel Plans
The Factual and Conceptual Background of the Sheqel Plan
The Monetary Dimension
Some Lessons from the Sheqel Plan Experiment
Inflation and Stabilization: The Message
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

A study of inflation in Israel between 1970 and 1990. Two sections, on the roots of the rapid rise in inflation from early 1970 through October 1973, and the efforts to halt and reverse inflation as part of the July 1985 Economic Stabilization Program, look at the macroeconomic conceptual reformulation of the period from the perspective of the Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply model. Discusses factors such as inertial and cost factors, and contrasts Israeli and Latin American programs for controlling inflation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews