Professor Manuel Trajtenberg serves since 2009 as Chairman of the Budgeting and Planning Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel, after being the (first) Head of the National Economic Council at the Prime Minister Office, and chief economic advisor to the Prime Minister during 2006-2009. Trajtenberg has been a Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University since 1984. He obtained his Ph.D. at Harvard University, held visiting positions at Harvard and Stanford University, is a Research Associate of the NBER in Cambridge, USA, and of the CEPR in London, UK, and was a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research. His main research interests are in the economics of innovation, patents, industrial organization, R&D policy, growth and development. Professor Trajtenberg served as Head of the Science, Technology and the Economy (STE) Program at the Neaman Institute, the Technion, and as a consultant for the World Bank on Innovation Policies for Development. Professor Trajtenberg has published books and numerous articles in leading scientific journals, and is regarded as one of the world leading experts in the field of R&D and Innovation. In August 2011 he was appointed Head of the Government Committee for Social and Economic Change, following the mass protests of the summer of 2011.
The Committee issued a thorough report on taxes, social services, market competition, the cost of living, and housing, many of which have already been implemented; the report discusses also the concept of social justice and its implications for policy. Trajtenberg has contributed widely to the formulation of economic and social policy in Israel, including the design of fiscal rules and the institution of a negative income tax, the setting a multi-year defence budget, education and employment policies towards the Arab minority and the ultraorthodox, R&D and innovation policy, and the reform of the Higher Education system, including the establishment of Centers of Research Excellence.
This talk was given on March 13, 2014 at the Munk School of Global Affairs. This video is only available on browsers that support Adobe Flash. We apologize for any inconvenience.