Allocating Security Expenditures under Knightian Uncertainty: an Info-Gap Approach
In this paper we demonstrate a methodology aimed at coping with resource allocation under Knightian (non-probabilistic) uncertainty by focusing on the example of competing security measures. The results of this application to security resource allocation also allow us to postulate a possible positivist explanation for the way governments are allocating these expenditures today. We explore […]
Environmental technologies – the green future
The field of environmental technology development includes a very wide range of activities. In the study, which is conducted jointly by the Samuel Neaman Institute, Globes Research and Kesselman & Kesselman, we show that there are very large opportunities in the new market and that the government must take a series of actions realize these […]
Liquidity Constraints on the Attainment of Tertiary Education in Israel
This study examines the effect of a family’s economic background on the chances of a twelfth grade high school student to obtain a first (bachelor) degree. The study analyses the marks obtained in the matriculation certificate by twelfth grade students in 1992-97, together with their parents’ demographic and social data taken from the 1995 census, […]
Energy Forum 4: Solar energy for the production of heat
Introduction The Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Research in Science and Technology, within the framework of its activity in the energy field, conducts meetings of the Energy Forum, devoted to discussions and debate over energy related issues of national importace. The Energy Forum holds focused discussions regarding specified themes, and teams of subject-matter experts are […]
Equity and Efficiency Effects of Different Funding Arrangements for Higher Education: A Calibrated Analysis Applied to Israel
We construct a macro-model of an economy with skilled and unskilled labor, and a centralized system of higher education, calibrate it to the parameters of Israel’s economy and university system, and then use it to simulate different modes of financing higher education so as to gauge their effect on output, distribution and mobility. We find […]
Annual Report 2005-2006 Samuel Neaman Institute
The Annual report for 2005-2006 summarizes the Samuel Neaman Institute’s activities for this year in a wide range of subjects
Investment Policies in Defense R&D Programs
Investment in advanced defense technologies is a prominent characteristic of modern armed forces. The paper examines the optimal investment policy in developing such technologies, accounting for their S-shaped progress profile and the stochastic nature of the R&D process. We show that the optimal investment is a discontinuous function of the available budget, and that its […]
The Possible Role Of Israeli Solar Technologies In The Meadowlands’ Renewable Energy Efforts
The SNI was asked by the NJ Meadowlands Commission (NJMC)- renewable energy task force, the Institute for Meadowlands Studies (IMS) and the Center for Energy, Economic and Environmental Policy to pinpoint Israeli companies, which are capable of participating in solar energy tenders at NJ, Meadowlands. The current report examines Israeli companies in the […]
Reclaiming the Dead Sea, Alternatives for Action
The Dead Sea, the lowest and saltiest sea in the world, is currently in a state of severe environmental degradation. Water extraction from the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee, and the Yarmouk River for Israel, Jordan, and Syria, as well as the extraction of Dead Sea water for industrial plants in Israel and Jordan, […]
Two Seas Canal – Is it a real aim or some kind of a preconceived solution to an unspecified target?
This paper deals with the necessity of finding alternative water resources to Israel’s emptying water reservoir. The author, Prof. Dan Zaslavsky, is rejecting in this paper the idea of The “Two Seas Canal” (an idea that was rejected formerly five times for economic inefficiency and for other various reasons) and is suggesting two different alternatives. […]