Policy
At the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, Labib Shami studies Israel’s macroeconomy and the economic pressures on households. Since 2021 he has co-authored, with Prof. Benjamin Bental, the macroeconomic chapter of the Center’s annual State of the Nation Report.
Argues that Israel's consumer price index understates the cost pressure on households because it leaves out mortgage and consumer-credit interest, constructs an alternative finance-based housing measure, and recommends publishing supplementary indices alongside the official one.
Follows the same Israeli households from 2013 to 2022 to trace movements between owning, renting and living in family-owned homes, with particular attention to rising homeownership in Arab society and to international comparisons.
Simulates how Bank of Israel rate increases, compared with inflation left unchecked, would change households' monthly mortgage payments, and concludes that unchecked inflation would hurt borrowers more than the rate increases.
Breaks down Israeli household debt by income decile, age group and population group, finding a debt-to-GDP ratio that is low by international standards but rising, with particular vulnerability among the poorest households.
· State of the Nation Report 2025
Assesses Israel's wartime economy, from defence-driven deficits and debt to their effects on investment, consumption and growth, together with the long-standing problems of low productivity and high prices.
· State of the Nation Report 2024
Reviews how the war affected GDP, public spending and revenue, deficit and debt projections and the high-tech sector in 2024, set against longer-run structural trends.
· State of the Nation Report 2023
Surveys Israel's macroeconomic position just before 7 October 2023: growth relative to the OECD, public finances, productivity gaps, high-tech investment, inflation and the cost of living.
· State of the Nation Report 2022
Describes the 2022 economy's return to pre-COVID trends, covering public debt, a tight labour market, low productivity and capital per worker, the high-tech sector and price developments.
· State of the Nation Report 2021
Examines the rebound from COVID-19 through GDP, consumption and saving, trade, deficits, the take-up of relief funds, debt sustainability and employment.
Reviews the pandemic's immediate impact in 2020 on growth, unemployment, the deficit and national debt, monetary policy and the take-up of government aid programmes.
Estimates the size of Israel's non-observed economy with a currency-demand model, tracing its recent decline, separating its tax-evasion and crime components, and considering the possible effects of limits on cash and of COVID-19.
Analyses moves into, out of and within eight mixed Jewish–Arab cities between 2017 and 2020 by socioeconomic cluster, and what these patterns mean for the cities' social fabric.
Investigates why few Arab children under three attend supervised early-childhood frameworks, drawing on ministry data, a survey and interviews to identify barriers of supply, access and cost, and to set out policy options.
From policy to research
The Taub studies of household debt (2019), mortgages (2023) and the consumer price index (2026) apply questions also studied in the academic work on money and credit.
Dynamic monetary equilibrium (2019) · Elusive competition (2025)
The 2020 report on Israel’s non-observed economy uses a currency-demand model. Later articles apply machine learning to the same estimation problem and adapt the approach to informal self-employment.
Machine learning estimates (2024) · Informal self-employment (2024)