Arye L. Hillman

 

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William Gittes Chair
Professor of Economics

Bar-Ilan University

Editor,
European Journal of Political Economy (Elsevier)

Address

Department of Economics
Bar-Ilan University
52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel

Telephone:

+ 972-3-531-8951, 972-9-774-6424

Mobile: +972-547-901642
Fax:  + 972-9-771-5628

Email: arye.hillman@biu.ac.il

 

 

Silvaplana Workshop in Political Economy, 21 – 25 July 2012, invitation to submit a paper for presentation

 

 

 

 

 

 

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Date of birth:

13 January 1947

Place of birth:

Bad Wörishofen, U.S. zone of occupation, Bavaria, Germany

Citizenship:

Israel

Family history:

Sole survivor of children of Yehoshua (ז"ל) and Rosa Hillman (ז"ל), whose other children perished at Auschwitz.  Married to Jeannette (née Mann) in 1967.  Children Tamara, Ilana, Nachman Eliyahu, Benjamin, 18 grandchildren.

 

Higher

education

B.A. First Class Honors in Economics and the University Medal, University of Newcastle, Australia 1963-67 (honors thesis advisor Paul Sherwood)

M. Ecs. (Honors), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 1968-70 (thesis advisor Peter Lloyd)

PhD Economics, University of Pennsylvania, USA 1970-73 (thesis advisors Albert Ando, Wilfred Ethier)

Academic family tree:  Ron Jones, to Wilfred Ethier; and Albert Ando

 

Affiliations

Department  of Economics, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

 

Kiel Institute of World Economics, International Research Fellow

CESifo, Research Fellow

CEPR, Research Fellow

 

Offices and Honors

Max-Planck-Prize for Humanities Sciences, awarded jointly with Heinrich W. Ursprung, 1994

President, European Public Choice Society, 1996-1997

Fellow, Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, 2000

Albert Winsemius Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 2000

 

Visiting

positions

Princeton University, U.S.A., Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs and Department of Economics, visiting professor of economics, spring 1989, fall 2004

International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C., Fiscal Affairs Department, summer 2000, 2002, 2003

The World Bank, Washington, DC, research fellow, Socialist Economies Reform Unit, 1990

U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, U.S.A., visiting professor, Department of Economics,1985-87

Australian National University, visiting lecturer, Department of Economics, The Faculties, spring 1979

University of Illinois at Urbana, U.S.A., visiting assistant professor of economics, 1973-74

 

Previous

positions

Bar-Ilan University: Associate Professor 1982-1984, Senior Lecturer 1980-1982

Tel-Aviv University, Department of Economics, lecturer 1974-79

University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Research Fellow, Economics Research Unit (concurrent with graduate studies) 1970-1973

Macquarie University, Australia. Senior Teaching Fellow 1968. Lecturer with tenure 1969-1970

 

 

 

RESEARCH

My research focuses on political economy, which is the study of public policy as the interface between economic and political decisions. Political economy was introduced into the modern economics literature by the public-choice school of thought. My recent research has included expressive behavior and behavioral aspects of political economy. 

 

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH IN PROGRESS    link

BOOKS    link

 

PAPERS

Research papers are organized according to the following topics.

1. POLITICAL ECONOMY AND INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS    link

My interest in political economy began in the field of international trade, with a quest to understand why governments have prevented people from trading with one another. I proposed that departures from free trade were explained by political benefits for political decision makers through the income-redistribution consequences of protectionist policies. The political-economy explanation for protectionist policies was a departure from the theme prevailing in the literature that intervention by government in international trade could be justified as a second-best quest for efficiency. The literature described international migration as movement of factors of production symmetric with capital movements. A political-economy approach to migration policy set out in my papers viewed migration in the context of decisions of people with personal needs and presumptions of culture. A political-economy perspective explains trade liberalization as “exchange of market access”, whereby governments reciprocally compromise the perceived exclusive right of their domestic producers to sell in domestic markets. Existing literature had focused on reciprocal reduction of optimal tariffs imposed for terms-of-trade purposes.

1.1 Political economy of trade policy

1.1.1    The political economy of protection

1.1.2    Trade liberalization and globalization

1.1.3    The environment and trade policy

1.1.4    Market structure as a determinant of protection

1.1.5    The multinational firm and foreign investment

1.1.6    Protection as insurance

1.1.7    Trade embargoes

1.1.8    Incentives for illegal activity

1.1.9    Surveys

 

1.2  Comparative advantage and trade

1.2.1    True and “revealed” comparative advantage

1.2.2    The factor content of international trade

1.2.3    Departure from the law of one price

1.2.4    Domestic monopoly and dumping

1.2.5    Trade diversion as a prisoners’ dilemma

 

1.3  The political economy of international migration

1.3.1    The political economy of migration policy

1.3.2    Why do people emigrate?

1.3.3    Illegal immigration

1.3.4    Host-country benefits

 

1.4  Other related papers and comments

 

2. POLITICAL ECONOMY AND PUBLIC POLICY    link

A political-economy view of public policy includes recognition of incentives for rent creation and rent extraction by political decision makers and rent seeking by the prospective beneficiaries of rents. The social costs of rent seeking are indicated by rent dissipation. I have studied rent dissipation under different institutional conditions. Rents affect development failure and success: a political-economy perspective explains development failure in terms of the personal objectives of rulers and ruling elites in poor countries. I have studied how behavioral aspects and expressive behavior influences economic and political decisions. Public policy is affected through policy traps that arise when people expressively support public policies that they would veto if they could. My textbook Public Finance and Public Policy: Responsibilities and Limitations of Government (Cambridge University Press, 1st edition 2003, 2nd edition 2009; Chinese, Hebrew, Russian, and Japanese translations) includes the traditional topics of public finance and public policy, while providing a political-economy perspective on the choice between markets and decisions of government.

2.1  Behavioral political economy

2.2  Rent creation and rent seeking

2.2.1     The social costs of rent seeking

2.2.2     Institutions and the creation of rents

2.2.3     Survey of the rent seeking literature

2.3   Economic development and development failure

2.4   Paternalist policies

2.5   Public policy and public safety

2.6   Clubs, privilege, and exclusion

2.7   Other topics

 

3. SOCIALISM AND TRANSITION    link

In the course of the transition from socialism, changing institutions and the introduction of private property rights through privatization changed personal opportunities and economic and political incentives. I was fortunate in having had the opportunity to visit many post-communist countries in the early years of transition as an advisor for the World Bank. My research on the political economy of transition was conducted with World Bank researchers.

3.1  Surveys

3.2   Rents and transition

3.3   Privatization

3.4   International trade policy in transition

3.5   Public finance in transition

3.6   Other aspects of transition

3.6.1     The rule of law

3.6.2     Economic statistics in the transition

3.6.3     Country studies

 

4. SHORT PAPERS, COMMENTS, POLICY PAPERS    link

4.1 The economy of Israel

4.2 Other papers and notes

 

 

 

 

 

PUBLIC AND PLENARY LECTURES

 

Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies May 2011. Public lecture on: "Identity and expressive behavior in voting in Israel" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2tz5_RW35o

Public Choice Society, San Antonio, March 2011. Plenary presentation on: “Behavioral political economy”

Silvaplana Workshop on Political Economy. Pontrasina, July 2010. “Expressive policy traps”

CESifo 3rd Workshop on Political Economy, Dresden, December 2009. Keynote speaker on “Expressive behavior”

European Public Choice Society, Athens, April 2009. Plenary lecture on: “Expressive behavior in economics and politics: An overview and a perspective”

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: the Israeli Humboldt Club, the Humboldt Kolleg Symposium on “When Science and Humanities Meet”, January 8, 2009. Invited lecture on “The welfare state”

Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, 21 May 2008. Public lecture on: "The work ethic and the welfare state"

Hubei College of Economics, China, October 10, 2007. Public lecture on: “Is social justice achievable?”

Singapore Economic Review annual public lecture, Nanyang University, September 20, 2007: “Globalization and social justice”

44th Anniversary of the Initiation of the Study of Economics at the University of Havana, Hotel Tryp Habana Libre, October 6, 2006. Plenary lecture on: “The elusive quest for social justice”

Mont Pelerin Society General Meetings, Salt Lake City, August 15-20, 2004.  Plenary address on: “Institutions of international decision making: the United Nations”

The World Bank, PREM Conference, Washington DC, April 27-28, 2004.  Debate with Jeffrey Sachs on: “Economic policies for failed states”

European Public Choice Society, Berlin, April, 2004.  Plenary lecture on: “Development failure”

Israel Economic Association, Symposium on 50 years of Economic Research in Israel, April 28, 1999. Invited lecture on: “Political Economy”

European Public Choice Society Annual Conference, Prague, April 1997. Presidential Address: "Political economy and political correctness"

Mont Pelerin Society General Meeting, Cannes, September 1994. Plenary address on: "Nostalgia, self-interest, and the transition from socialism"

European Public Choice Society Annual Conference, Portrush, April 1993. Plenary address on: "The transition from socialism: Some comforting thoughts for adherents to a public choice perspective"

Geneva Environmental Meetings, Environment and Development: Conflict and Convergence, May 1992. Presentation on: "Environmental protection and international trade"

Annual Meetings of the Economic Association of Israel, Tel-Aviv, December 1991. Plenary lecture: "The political economy of international trade policy"

European Public Choice Society Annual Conference, Meersburg, April 1990. Plenary lecture on "International trade policy: Benevolent dictators and optimizing politicians"

Taft Lecture, University of Cincinnati, April 1989. On: “Liberalizing socialist industry"

 

 

 

 

POLICY RELATED

 

International Monetary Fund, Fiscal Affairs Department

Ethics, governance, and development failure, 2000

User prices and basic education in low-income countries, 2002

Governance, growth and fiscal-policy transmission mechanisms in low-income countries 2003

The World Bank

Adjustment to end of CMEA trading arrangement 1990

International trade policy regime 1992 (Turkmenistan)

Choice of the tax regime 1992, incentives for private sector development 1993-1994 (Bulgaria)

Foreign trade regime 1993 (Baltics)

Foreign trade subsidies, directed credits 1993 (Russia)

Incentives for private sector development 1993 (Hungary)

Financing government in transition 1994-95 (Bulgaria)

World Development Report Background Paper 1995-96: "Rents and the transition" (with Alan Gelb and Heinrich Ursprung)

Enterprise development, 2002 (Uzbekistan)

GATT/World Trade Organization

International trade policy and environmental interests 1991

Trade, technology, and social marginalization 1998

The European Union

Economic policy in Hungary 1989

The Government of Israel: Office of the Prime Minister

Position paper, The economy of Israel: Misinformation or disinformation? 1992

Forum for discussion of economic policy options, 1996-1997

 

 

 

EDITORIAL POSITIONS

 

Editor

European Journal of Political Economy (Elsevier), since 1994

 

Other editorial affiliations

Associate editor for Political Economy and Institutions, imp-WG: Economics. The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-journal, Kiel Institute of World Economics, since 2006

Australian Economic Papers, editorial board, since 2004

International Advisory Board, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, since 1995

Editorial Board, The Journal of International Trade and Economic Development, since 1995

 

Previous

Advisory Board, Encyclopedia of Public Choice, 1999

Associate Editor, Economics and Politics, 1990-1999

 

 

 

TEACHING AND RESEARCH SUPERVISION

 

Supervision PhD theses

Yoav Zeif, 1999. Three essays in international trade policy and income distribution

Shirit Katav-Herz, 2002. Social norms, labor standards, and international consequences

Ronen Bar-El, 2006. Essays in intergenerational economics

Odelia Rosin, 2008. The economic consequences of obesity

Yariv Weltzman, 2010. The persistence of ineffective aid

 

In progress:

Rezina Sultana, Essays in the political economy of economic development

Mor Zahavi, Essays in behavioral political economy

 

Courses taught

Public economics

Public policy

International trade

Microeconomic theory

 

Invited graduate lecture series

Centre d’ economie de la Sorbonne, Paris I, February 2010. “Public Policy and Public Finance”.

University of Freiburg, July 2009. “Public Policy and Public Finance”.

Hong-Kong University of Science and Technology, October 2007. “Public Choice”

Humboldt University, Berlin, July 2007. “Social Justice”.

Kiel Institute Summer School on Economic Policy, July 2007. “Reforming the Welfare State: Balancing Efficiency and Equity”.

New School of Economics, Moscow, January-February 1995. (1) “Public Finance” , (2) “International Trade”

Kiel Institute of World Economics, March 1993. “The Political Economy of Trade Policy”

 

Invited undergraduate lecture series

University of Havana, summer school in conjunction with Humboldt University, October 3-15 2006. “Public Finance and Public Policy.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology, School of Public Administration, Wuhan, China, (1) October 2002, (2) March 2004. “Public finance and public policy”.

University of Catania, Sicily, (1) October 1997, (2) April 2000. “Public Finance and Public Policy”

G-17 Institute, Belgrade, Serbia, Summer School in Public Policy, July 2004. “Public Finance and Public policy”.

Center for Banking, Finance, and International Economics, Podgorica, Montenegro. International Summer School, (1) Herceg-Novi, Montenegro, June 2002. “Public Finance and Public Choice”; (2) Budva, July 2001 “International and Public Finance”.

Center for Liberal Democratic Studies, Belgrade, Serbia. International Summer School, in Petrovac, Montenegro, July 2000. “Public Finance and Public Policy”

 

 

CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION

 

Annual Silvaplana workshop on political economy

Since 1989, with Heinrich Ursprung and others

Recent programs: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

 

Other conferences

Principal organizer

“Economic Performance, Economic Policy, and Political Culture”, at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, with Otto Swank, 1999

“The Changing Role of Government in an Integrated World Economy”, Bar-Ilan University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and CEPR, with Mario Blejer, 1997

European Public Choice Society Annual Conference, Bar-Ilan University and Tiberias, Israel, 1996

“Markets and Politicians”, Bar-Ilan University, 1989

 

Program committee

European Public Choice Society Meetings, Helsinki, April 2006

International Institute of Public Finance, Korea, August 2005

European Economic Association Annual Congress, Venice, August 2002

International Institute of Public Finance, Linz, August 2001

European Public Choice Society Meetings, Paris, April 2001

European Economic Association Annual Congress, Berlin, September 1998