We introduce two dimensions of uncertainty, about the upside and the downside of an asset, in a model of asset valuation under asymmetric information. This justifies capital structures with equity and risky debt for information revelation purposes. However, a capital structure with only one...

This paper deals with the optimal transfer of binary information (BIT) on group membership between different statistical surveys of an identical population, a need arising frequently in socio-economic surveys. The limited number of questions asked in any one survey may necessitate information...

This paper assesses an economy's default risk on its international debt by considering different approaches,prevalent in the literature. Unlike in multi-country studies,these data comprise reported loans to one economy only-This is useful since the country's macroeconomic development is the...

This paper deals with the impact of migrant workers on the Israeli wage structure, on the chances of being unemployed or out of the labor force and on inequality in gross earnings from work. One of the manifestations of globalization is the movement of migrant workers from low-income to richer...

The World financial turmoil,that beset emerging economies during much of 1997 and culminated after the Russian crisis in the second half of 1998,presents an interesting test case for economic policy in an open economy.Israel's policy response was radical,and -with the benefit of hindsight...

The incidence of poverty,as measured by the relative index customarily used in Israel,rose in 2005 to a level of 24.7 percent.Some reduction in poverty was evident in 2006,however,and in the year to June 2006 it reached 24.4 percent. Alternative poverty indices which consider a household poor if...

Poverty is easily recognized when encountered "face to face," but when measured for a society as a whole it becomes evasive and ambiguous, raising fundamental and practical issues. In this paper we examine several poverty measures from the aspect of how well they can serve as policy targets and...

The Haredi (Jewish ultra-orthodox) population in Israel is an idiosyncratic community. Its members are committed to the observance of the Bible and its commandments, as interpreted by its sectarian religious leaders. Haredi poverty is exceptionally high, with a share of 20% of the Israeli poor...

The Israeli Economy has served as a laboratory for the study of inflation and government policy reponse. In periods crucial for Israel's experience of inflation, finance ministers were replaced frequently, often changing their predecessors' policies, much to the detriment of inflation. Inflation...

Traditional theories argue that governance is strongest under a single large blockholder, as she has high incentives to undertake value-enhancing interventions. However, most firms are held by multiple small blockholders. This article shows that, while such a structure generates free-rider...