During 1953-1955, the American agricultural economist Marion Clawson advised the Government of Israel (GOI) as a member of the Economic Advisory Staff (EAS), a group of American economists invited by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Clawson, a protégé of John D. Black and Mordecai Ezekiel, was...

This is the first study of bread regulation in a post-World War II democratic country. Under Israel’s Labor Socialist regime, bread was mostly privately supplied. In setting prices, policymakers faced tradeoffs between producer profits/viability of small-scale producers and consumer welfare,...

We examine how the Mapai-Right Liberal rift shaped Israel's first Antitrust Law (1959). We document the protracted political debate regarding the proposed Law, which lasted from March 1950 until August 1959. While Mapai feared that the private sector would collude against consumer interests, the...