Supply Side Policies

Examples of Supply Side Policies in Israel

Case 1:
In 1982, Yoram Aridor, the Minister of Finance of Israel, employed supply-side policies to save the country's economy, which at the time was suffering from inflation over 130%. Though it was argued some of his choices weren't sustainable while the nation was funding a war, his policies like tax cuts and tax concessions to people who worked extra hours for a time appear to have been very beneficial to Israel's economy (Elmer).

Case 2:
In 2005, Israel decided to deregulate many parts of the agricultural industry by releasing price regulations in the hope that it would create, through competition, lower prices on critical food products. There was fear that especially in rural areas, where competition was less prevalent, this would lead to producers unfairly raising prices (Linzer-Ganz and Sinai). However, by 2016, the deregulated markets appeared to indeed have their prices lowered more than those that were still regulated, and the nation decided to deregulate even more parts of the agricultural industry ("Bringing Lower Food Prices to Israel Through Agricultural Deregulation").

Case 3:
In 2018, the Israel government passed a reform to end the monopoly of the energy company IEC. Even though the company was for a while surviving on government funds, it was challenging to shut down. It has generally been agreed that this was the right thing to do, though some people felt the government did not do enough and feared IEC would retain its monopoly ("Israel to break up electricity utility IEC's monopoly"). At this point though, its hard to say for sure how this will go.

Works Cited

"Bringing Lower Food Prices to Israel Through Agricultural Deregulation." Atlas Network, Atlas Network, 8 March 2016. www.atlasnetwork.org/news/article/bringing-lower-food-prices-to-israel-through-agricultural-deregulation
"Israel to break up electricity utility IEC's monopoly." Reuters, Reuters, 17 May, 2018. af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL5N1SO3JM
Linzer-Ganz, Ronny and Nofar Sinai. "A Land Flowing With (Deregulated) Milk and Honey." Haaretz, Haaretz Daily Newspaper, 3 October, 2005. www.haaretz.com/1.4927623
Winter, Elmer. "Israel: where supply-side economics works." The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 January, 1982. www.csmonitor.com/1982/0128/012833.html