Type

Essay

Pages

16 pages

Word Count

6509 words

School

Adelphi University

Course Code

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Reasons For Israel’s Economic Growth

February 19, 2021

<img class="bi x0 y0 w1 h1" alt="" src="https://preview.coursepaper.com/590684/bg1.jpg"> 
 
 
 
Table of Contents 
 
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 
1 Importance of the Study .................................................................................................. 1 
2 Literature Review ........................................................................................................... 1 
3 Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 2 
4 Objects and Scope ........................................................................................................... 2 
5 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 2 
6 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 3 
7 Structure of the Study ..................................................................................................... 3 
Content of the Study ......................................................................................................... 4 
1 Chapter 1: Models explaining Israel’s Economic Growth ............................................. 4 
2 Chapter 2: Facts about Israel’s Economy between the 1970s and the 21st   Century ..... 7 
3 Chapter 3: Reasons for Israel’s Economic Growth from 1970s to 2000s ...................... 9 
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 14 
References........................................................................................................................ 16 
List of Figures ................................................................................................................. 20 

1 Introduction

1.1 Importance of the Study

Since Vietnam is a country striving for success in becoming a developed country, our

assignment aims at exploring the track record of Israel as a pioneer and comparable example.

The problem of Vietnam’s economy is that it is equipped with a low-skilled labor force and

that its agriculture industry does not apply much technological advancement. Additionally,

the government is operating inefficiently by intervening too much in the markets which leads

to reduced development of private sectors. Since Israel is a country which succeeded in a

remarkably short period of time, we want to draw measures for Vietnam following the

example of Israel.

1.2 Literature Review

The two famous Japanese economists, Hayami and Godo have developed a theoretical

framework including the model of dialectic social development, the institutional and

technological innovations so as to find an appropriate explanation for the economic

phenomena especially those in East Asia: how can the low income countries catch up with the

high income countries, how can technology advancement and structural reforms affect a

particular economy and the remarkable developing processes of some countries in Asia,

which are also covered in this study. Whereby the research conducted by Hayami and Godo

only focuses on the technology and institutions, the Kremerian model in Population Growth

and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990 studies about the role of population

growth in the economic development. In addition to the two models mentioned above, the

theory researched by Keynes emphasizes the role of the government in order to stabilize the

economic fluctuations in the short run. Based on these models, our study tries to understand

the effects of population, institution and technology on the economic development in Israel.

The work of Assaf Luxembourg from 2011 explains the main facts and events of the

Israeli economy that contributed to the major factors that led to the Israel’s economic growth.

In addition, Nadav Halevi’s online article provides a brief summary of modern Israel’s history

by presenting the role of several historical obstacles throughout the development of Israel.

The description of Israel’s economy during the 1970s to 21st century is mainly based on

the online newspaper article by Weissmann (2012) published on the website of The Atlantic.

In order to explain the initialization of the stabilization plan which was implemented in

Israel, additional sources which provide information on the Israeli history are adduced as

evidence and basis for analysis, since the article by Weissmann only gives a brief overview.

The first aspect of the plan was the extension of Israel’s immigration policy which enriched

the labor force by opening its borders especially for Jewish people. The role of venture capital

for the growth of the Israeli economy is also examined in the article by Weissmann. It

describes the initiation of investments in Israel due to the government’s program Yozma.

Additional literature mentioned in this part of our assignment supports the contribution of

investments to the Israeli economy’s growth by providing figures and outcomes. Since the

work of Israel’s governor of the Bank of Israel was also crucial for Israel’s growth, his

achievement is explained with the help of historical and biographical evidence especially

provided by the website of the IMF.

1.3 Objectives

Our assignment aims at examining the development process of the Israeli economy

between the 1970s and the beginning of the 21st century by analyzing appropriate models and

providing facts about Israel’s economy during this period as well as factors contributing to the

process of Israel’s growth.

1.4 Objects and Scope

In order to conduct the study, we focus on Israel’s GDP, inflation rate and growth rate as

well as on figures on the growth of Israel’s startup sector. The time frame for our findings is

from the 1970s until the beginning of the 21st century.

1.5 Research Questions

The question guiding our research is “What contributed to the growth of the Israeli

economy from the 1970s until the beginning of the 21st century?”. To define our question

more precisely we ask which models are appropriate to clarify the growth of the Israeli

economy, which crucial historical events took place and which factors were leading to the

success of Israel’s economy.

1.6 Methodology

This study is an attempt to identify the major reasons that contributed to Israel’s economic

growth. Since the dialetic social development model is a broad concept which simplifies the

complex relationship between the economic subsystem including technology as well as

resource endowments and the cultural-institutional subsystem, the model can explain the

effects of the stabilization plan used to foster Israel’s economy. Models related to the dialetic

social development model are the theory of institutional innovation, the Kremerian model of

population growth and the Keynesian model of economy which are investigated to make

Israel’s economic growth comprehensible.

1.7 Structure of the Study

In order to investigate whether Israel and its way to success can be considered as an

appropriate role model for the Vietnamese economy, we examine Israel’s economy by

applying the model of dialetic social development to the Israeli economy. Secondly, we

provide facts about Israel’s economy from the 1970s to the 21st century. Thirdly, we present

the stabilization plan which was the reason that contributed to Israel’s economic boom during

this period.

2 Content of the Study

2.1 Chapter 1: Models explaining Israel’s Economic Growth

The state of Israel was first officially established in mid May 1948 (Nadav Halevi, 2008).

In its first two decades of existence (1948-1973), the Israeli economic growth rates exceeded

10% annually (World Bank, 2016) which is the result from its strong commitment to

development. However, since 1973, there was the “Lost Decade” of the Israeli economic

history, as the consequence of the oil crisis simultaneously with the Yom Kippur War in

1973, the government deficit grew significantly due to the huge defence spending and in an

effort to finance the huge budget deficit, the Bank of Israel printed money which accelerated

the inflation rapidly (Melnick & Mealem, 2009). In 1984, the inflation rate was nearly 400

percent - the level bordering on hyper-inflation (World Bank, 2016). The situation became

worse when foreign investors evacuated their money leading to the “banking crisis”

(Weissmann, 2012), whether or not Israel would be able to pay its debt and deal with the

current account deficit became unclear so the economy was on the brink of collapse in

financial and foreign currency markets (Ben-Porath, 1989). However, in 1985, with the

implementing of the stabilization plan, a macroeconomic strategy carried out by governments

and central banks to reduce the severity of economic fluctuations (economic growth, price

levels and unemployment) in the short run (Investopedia, n.d.), and the market-oriented

structural reforms, which are enacted in order to reduce the government involvement in the

economy, the Israeli economy was restorative and continued to develop (Bruno, 1986)

(Melnick & Mealem, 2009). Since the establishment of the state, many alterations happened

to the structure of Israel’s economy unrecognizably. This study is aimed at analyzing the

economic growth of Israel between the 1970s and 2000s with the support of following

economic theory and model.

First of all, according to Hayami and Godo, the model of dialectic social development is

developed to conceive “how such technological and institutional changes are interrelated with

each other, how they respond to changes in resource endowments, and how such responses

are governed by cultural tradition” can be applied to explain why the Israeli economic

structure had to change and how the changes affect the economy in the country. “Model of

dialectic social development is a model of the evaluation in social systems through dialectic

interactions between economic and cultural-institutions variables.” (Hayami & Godo, 2005).

The economic subsystem consists of interactions between resource endowments (factors

of production – including natural resources, labor and capital) and technology (production

function – the determining factor that determines how factors of production are combined to

create added values). Moreover, increases in economic resources depend on progress in

technology and vice versa. The activities that use both human capital and physical capital as

inputs for the production of accumulation of information can be called “investment in

intangible capital”. Advancement of technology acts as a fundamental for resource

augmentation and it is also promoted by “purposive resource using activities” or “investment

in intangible capital”. A crucial element in augmenting knowledge production function is

investment in human capital (enlargement of human capacity) by improving the performances

of education, training programs and healthcare systems. The investment in human capital will

increase the efficiency of knowledge production, which will result in increasing the efficiency

of the process creating economic value added from given resources (Hayami & Godo, 2005).

According to this, the “quality university education” and the “highly motivated and educated

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