IASPS

Quarterly Report
Spring 2000

Comments of the President

The Director's Column

Media Focus on Fellows' Research

Koret Fellows Form a Corps of Teachers

The Internet/Telcom Corner

Institute Hires Executive Director 

Reality: Israeli Citizens Against Government Waste

Dignitaries Discuss Mideast at IASPS

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After seven years, the IASPS Koret Fellowship Program is entering a new phase. The innovations to the Program reflect its continued success and will once again put IASPS at the cutting edge of the struggle for freedom and limited government in Israel.

Fellowship Program graduates already occupy important positions in many industries and sectors in Israel. Many of these graduates are already teaching at Israeli universities. Their research and studies are being cited in Israeli professional journals and magazines. 

With commencement of the 2000-2001 academic year in October, IASPS will welcome four outstanding graduates of the Fellowship Program as part of the teaching staff of the Program. These graduates are already lecturing on economics to university students across Israel. Now they will take part in training future generations of Koret Fellows.

Furthermore, their participation as Program staff will reinforce the training and commitment they received during their own Fellowship years. Time and again the directors of IASPS have heard from former Fellows that the pressure on them to "conform," or worse, to "sell out," to the existing statist system is intense. As Institute staff engage in the education of Israel's most talented economics students, these former Fellows will strengthen their own commitment to the ideas behind the Fellowship Program. 

As a result of the new teaching component of the Koret Fellowship Program, the next class of Fellows will undergo a rigorous two-month course in economics and policy training at IASPS in Jerusalem. Professor Alvin Rabushka will direct the seminar and deliver a solid week of lectures. He will coordinate the lectures of the four former Fellows and supervise their course plans. Then, from November through the end of December, the new class of Fellows will receive an unprecedented amount of training in economics. 

The four new members of the teaching staff are: Ishai Ashlag, Bar Dadon, Amir Etzioni, and Ehud Menirav.

Ishai Ashlag, 29 years old, is a member of the first class of IASPS Koret Fellows in 1994. He is the author of IASPS Policy Studies No. 25, "Israel's Pension Fund Crisis." Ashlag has a B.A. in economics from Bar-Ilan University, where he will complete his doctorate in economics this summer.

As a special advisor to Minister of Agriculture Raphael Eitan in 1997, Ashlag helped remove price controls on dairy products, in accordance with the recommendations of an earlier IASPS Policy Studies. Ashlag has also advised the Ministry of Defense on privatization. 

Bar Dadon, 28 years old, is a member of last year's graduating class of Koret Fellows. She is the author of IASPS Policy Studies No. 30, "Reforming Israel's Automobile Insurance Market," Policy Studies No. 40, "The Need for an Economic Model for the IDF Reserves," and Policy Studies No. 46, "Public Housing in Israel: A Proposal for Reform." Dadon has a Masters in economics from Ben Gurion University in the Negev. Dadon provided research to then? minister of communications, Limor Livnat, during her IASPS Fellowship. Dadon is now strategic planning manager at Eurocom Communications, Ltd.

Amir Etzioni, 29 years old, is a member of last year's graduating Fellowship class. Etzioni has a B.A. in economics and business administration from Bar-Ilan University, where he is now a doctoral candidate. He is the author of IASPS Policy Studies No. 32, "The Israeli Cement Industry," Policy Studies No. 41, "Reforming Israel's Seaports," and Policy Studies No. 43, "Internet Infrastructure in Israel: A Proposal for Reform."

Since his graduation from IASPS, Mr. Etzioni has served as a strategic consultant for internet start-ups. He is director of the telecom regulation section of the "Virtual" Knesset Committee and a member of the board of directors of the Israeli Internet Association. Mr. Etzioni is also a regular contributor to the IASPS website, writing on subjects relating to the Internet and telecommunications.

Ehud Menirav, 29, is also a member of last year's graduating class. Menirav has an M.A. in economics from Bar-Ilan, where he begins a doctoral program in October. He is the author of IASPS Policy Studies No. 34, "Israel's Property Tax and Compensation Fund," Policy Studies No. 39, "Israel's Tenant Protection Law (Rent Control)" and Policy Studies No. 44, "Israel's Stamp Tax." In the fall, Menirav will begin teaching two courses in macro-economics and one in mathematics at Bar-Ilan. Until recently, he was the chief economist for the Mashbir Fashion Warehouses. He is organizing the establishment of Israeli Citizens Against Government Waste (see article in this Quarterly)