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Policy-Related Work
ICSEP has identified crucial areas in which reform is most urgently needed, such as land use, housing, small business regulation, de-monopolization, government structure and function, financial markets, the tax system, labor markets, education and health care. ICSEP studies these problems and holds seminars and conferences to discuss its findings. It then designs concrete plans for change.
ICSEP mobilizes decision makers, and public opinion shapers, in order to encourage coalitions in support of such reform.
Research Projects
ICSEP regularly initiates research projects on major issues of the day. Some research has also been done in cooperation with other bodies, such as the International Center of Economic Growth (on Political Business Cycles, published in Public Choice, 1992), and the Koret Foundation (on Small Businesses in Israel).
Reform Plans
ICSEP has regularly undertaken original studies in order to prepare for Israeli policy-makers detailed reform plans. ICSEP laid the groundwork for the successful anti-inflationary policies in the mid-eighties, and for the “privatized” immigrant absorption policies that facilitated the successful integration of the great mass of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. A subsequent reform plan, “Essential Conditions for the Renewal of Growth”, spelled out a number of concrete steps that could have huge effects if implemented. It was presented to the Israel Government under incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in September 1999 and to the Knesset.
A follow-up plan was prepared for Prime Minister Ehud Barak. It updated earlier plans, and provided a detailed analysis of the causes for growing budget deficits and how to cut them. A third plan suggested steps to enhance productivity by correcting grave distortions in the labor market.
