Soaring Minds: The Flight of Israel’s Economists∗

In the area of economics, the exodus of younger academics from Israel coupled with a heightened retirement rate among the older academics has brought Israel’s top economics departments – among the best in the world, until now – to the brink. The elimination of the country from the international research envelope in the future has become a realistic possibility that will impact not only the State of Israel, which stands to lose the most, but the profession in general. A snapshot of an implosion in progress is provided here. ∗ I would like to thank Nadav Shamir and Mariana Sadeh for providing data on various aspects of the academic salaries in Israel and explaining the non-obvious intricacies thereof. Many thanks also to Neil Gandal, Mark Gradstein, Gilles Saint-Paul and Yishay Yafeh for insightful comments and suggestions. Soaring inds: The Flight of Israel’s Econo ists