In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? "The Chosen Few "presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein offer a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.

In 70 CE, the Jews were an agrarian and illiterate people living mostly in the Land of Israel and Mesopotamia. By 1492 the Jewish people had become a small group of literate urbanites specializing in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine in hundreds of places across the Old World, from Seville to Mangalore. What caused this radical change? "The Chosen Few "presents a new answer to this question by applying the lens of economic analysis to the key facts of fifteen formative centuries of Jewish history. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein offer a powerful new explanation of one of the most significant transformations in Jewish history while also providing fresh insights into the growing debate about the social and economic impact of religion.

This volume is a collection of papers which were presented and discussed at a conference on "Aspects of Central Bank Policy Making" which took place in January 1990 at the Bank of Israel and Tel Aviv University. The conference marked the tenth anniversary of the passing of David Horowitz who was the first governor of the Bank of Israel. The conference was sponsored by the Bank of Israel and the David Horowitz Institute for the Research of Developing Countries at Tel Aviv University. Eitan Berglas, Zvi Eckstein and Mordechai Fraenkel served as organizing committee. The volume has three parts. The first part deals with the rules and the constraints that are fundamental for central bank policy making. It starts with a critical review of 75 years of monetary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, followed by several studies directed at the issues concerning the establishment of a European central bank. The second part deals with the insurance, regulation and safety of commercial banks. The last part contains analysis of monetary policies in Germany and Israel. Part of the research included in this volume is the result of a two years research project on "Central Bank Policies, Disinflation and the Macroeconomy" conducted at the David Horowitz Institute. The contributors to this project were: the Bundesbank, the Bank of England, the Bank of Italy, the Bank of Israel, the Bank for International Settlements and the Bank of the Netherlands.

With the advent of increased capital mobility in the last two decades, financial factors have become of key importance for the processes of stabilization and growth in developing, developed, and transforming economies. The size of international capital movements and the financial intermediation industry has become so large that these factors could become the dominant impulses for individual economies and the global economy in the late 1990s and beyond. This book collects essays by well-known analysts in international economies and finance who treat these issues from relatively new perspectives. They focus on (i) the role of credit in the propagation mechanism of monetary policy; (ii) effects of monetary policy on the likelihood that a given economy will become a banking center; (iii) the implications of increased capital mobility for migration flows; (iv) the role of exchange rate bands in the transition from high to low inflation; and (v) the interaction between financial innovations and inflation.

With the advent of increased capital mobility, financial factors have become of key importance for the processes of stabilization and growth in developing developed, and transforming economies. The size of international capital movements and the financial intermediation industry has become so large that these factors could become the dominant impulses for individual economies and the global economy in the 1990s and beyond. This book collects essays by well-known analysts in international economics and finance who treat these issues from relatively new perspectives. They focus on (i) the role of credit in the propagation mechanism of monetary policy; (ii) effects of monetary policy on the likelihood that a given economy will become a banking centre; (iii) the implications of increased capital mobility for migration flows; (iv) the role of exchange rate bands in the transition from high to low inflation; and (v) the interaction between financial innovations and inflation.