“Boundary Crossing Teachers”: A Possible Solution to Staffing Gaps in the Education System

This study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel points to a growing phenomenon of “boundary-crossing teachers,” reshaping the composition of Israeli teaching staff. Nachum Blass, Principal Researcher and Chair, Taub Center Education Policy Program,...

How Artificial Intelligence Changed the Composition of the Unemployed in Israel

This study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the composition of the unemployed in Israel. The researchers — Michael Debowy, Prof. Gil S. Epstein, and Prof. Avi...

The Impact of Technology on Wage Gaps in Israel

The full policy paper is currently available only in Hebrew. As generative artificial intelligence tools continue to develop, their adoption within the Israeli economy is accelerating, accompanied by far-reaching projections regarding their potential impact on employment, productivity, and...

A Grave Shortage and the Coming Wave of the Dead

Israel’s burial policy is generous and exceptional: it guarantees every citizen a permanent grave near their place of residence, funded by the state. However, this policy is not sustainable. Given the expected surge in the elderly population in...

Timing of Autism Recognition Among Israeli Children: Community and Socioeconomic Factors

A new study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, conducted in collaboration with the KI Research Institute, reveals systemic barriers in autism services that are depriving children in disadvantaged communities of critical early intervention....

On Real and Perceived Crises in the Education System

State of the Nation Report 2025 – Chapter: Education Israel’s education system is facing an unprecedented increase in the number of students enrolled in special education. This reality has led to a situation in which a substantial share...

Investment and Returns in the Environment and Health: The Water Sector, Energy, and Government Expenditures

Environment and Health Chapter in State of the Nation Report 2025: Expenditure on environmental protection out of all government expenditure has declined over the years, and today stands at only about 1.2% The majority of environmental expenditure is...

The Israeli Labor Market 2025: From Strategic Dangers to Technological Ones

  Labor Market Chapter State of the Nation Report 2025: Taub Center researchers Michael Debowy, Prof. Gil S. Epstein, and Prof. Avi Weiss present an overview of the labor market following more than two years of war, highlighting...

Welfare and the Shadow of Warfare

Welfare Chapter State of the Nation Report 2025: Taub Center researchers Prof. John Gal, Shavit Ben-Porat, and Yael Ovadia examine the activity of Israel’s welfare and social security systems in 2024, In the welfare chapter published as part...

Israel 2025: A Demographic Crossroads

Demography chapter, State of the Nation Report 2025: Since the establishment of the State, Israel’s population growth rate has fallen below 1.5% only twice: to 1.42% in 1981 and to 1.35% in 1983. Israel’s growth rate in 2025...

Is the Israeli Economy Recovering?

State of the Nation Report 2025 – Chapter: Macroeconomic Trends Israel’s economy is at a highly sensitive point. The high costs of the war have increased the government budget deficit, the level of debt relative to GDP, and...

The Paradox of Israel’s Healthcare System: Between National Achievements and Ongoing Erosion

State of the Nation Report 2025 – Chapter: Health Trends Looking at the state of healthcare in Israel reveals a paradox. On the one hand, life expectancy in Israel is high and continues to rise, placing it among...

Pisa Predictive Power of Future Educational Attainments: A Longitudinal Study

This study shows that performance on international PISA exams is a strong predictor of later educational success. At the same time, the study finds that many students who scored poorly on PISA nonetheless earned a Bagrut (matriculation) certificate,...

The Sources of Budget Gaps in the Middle School System

This research is currently available only in Hebrew. This study examines the level of funding allocated by the Ministry of Education to middle schools across different sectors and supervisory streams, and asks whether any group receives preferential treatment....

The Preschool Special Education Expansion Problem: Numbers, Trends, and Disparities

The Taub Center releases groundbreaking new research on the special education crisis in Israeli preschools from the 2020/21 to 2023/24 school years. The findings reveal a dramatic surge in children receiving special education services, alongside stark disparities across...

How is the Life Cycle Funded in Israel?

Israel’s National Transfer Account: Income, Expenditures, and Life-Cycle Deficits

According to the definition of the Central Bureau of Statistics, national accounts “comprehensively and in detail describe the economic activity in the economy, the relationships among the country’s economic agents, and the links between the Israeli economy and...

The fiscal consequences of changing demographic composition: Aging and differential growth across Israel’s three major subpopulations

Among high-income countries, Israel has an unusual demographic profile. While averaging 1.8% growth per year in GDP per capita (constant USD) over the last 25 years, its population has been increasing by 1.9% per year. Most years, around...

Mid-life and Alone — Single-Person Households: Characteristics, Challenges, and Policy Directions

The full research is currently available only in Hebrew. A first-of-its-kind study in Israel, published by the Taub Center, reveals that there are currently about 144,000 men and women aged 50–64 living in single-person households, many of whom...

Employment in the High-Tech Sector and Technology Occupations: Present and Future Challenges

Israel’s high-tech industry, the most productive sector in the economy, is entering a challenging period. This study reveals that the war and the artificial intelligence revolution are leaving employment in the sector in worse shape than in the...

Early Childhood in Israel in the Shadow of War: Findings of a Longitudinal Study, 2024-2025

Increasing the Deductible for the Purchase of Medicines and Services Included in the Health Basket: Analysis the Draft Decree on the Subject and Alternative Proposals

This publication is currently available in Hebrew only. Following the government’s decision to raise copayments for medicines, services, and medical technologies included in the national healthcare basket, Taub Center researchers examined the proposal and its expected implications. According...

Educational Trends in the Jewish Population: Long-Term Patterns by Ethnic Groups

The ethnic divide has been, and remains, one of the most charged topics in Israeli discourse. This Taub Center study examined educational gaps among Israel’s Jewish population from different origin groups — those of Asian/African origin, European/American origin,...

Beyond Capacity: The Relationship Between Preschool Class Size and Special Education Participation

This policy paper by the Taub Center shows that overcrowding in general preschools leads parents of children with special needs to enroll them in separate special education frameworks — a phenomenon that occurs mainly in Hebrew State education...

Tipat Halav (Family Health Center) in Israel: Where Is It Headed?

The full policy paper is currently available only in Hebrew. This policy paper presents a troubling picture of Tipat Halav services in Israel — the main public institution for child health in early childhood. The clinics suffer from...

The Sources of Budget Gaps in the Official Primary Education System

A new study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel examines the reasons behind the gaps in class and per-student budgets in the Official primary education system — specifically between secular Hebrew State education, State-religious...

Between Environment and Demography: The Waste Crisis and the Loss of Open Spaces

This chapter in the State of the Nation Report focuses on two major environmental issues: the waste crisis and tree felling for construction and development purposes. Taub Center researchers, Dr. Maya Sadeh and Or Siman-Tov, present alarming data...

Young Children and Their Parents During the War

Events of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war have deeply impacted young children and their parents. A survey conducted by the Taub Center Initiative on Early Childhood Development and Inequality paints a concerning picture, highlighting, among other...

Demography Overview, 2024: Diverging Fertility, Shifting Migration, and Shrinking Yishuvim

The events of the past two years have had a significant impact on Israel’s demography — affecting, among other things, fertility rates, which initially declined at the start of the war but surged again after a few months;...

The Education System in Israel 2020–2024: A Conservative System in a Dynamic Reality

This chapter examines the state of the education system in Israel in light of recent events — the plan for judicial reform, the current war, and, to a great extent, the Covid-19 pandemic. The head of the Taub...

The Healthcare System in Israel, 2024

The healthcare chapter of the State of the Nation Report 2024 presents trends in national health expenditure and highlights several challenges facing the healthcare system, among them, the workforce crisis, a shortage of hospital beds and medical equipment,...

The Labor Market in Israel in 2024 in the Shadow of War

This chapter of the State of the Nation Report 2024 reviews the status of the labor market after more than a year of war. Taub Center researchers Michael Debowy, Prof. Gil S. Epstein, and Prof. Avi Weiss present...

The Welfare System and the Challenges of War

This chapter examines the activities of Israel’s welfare and social security systems over the past year, in the shadow of the October 7, 2023 massacre and the ensuing war. Prof. John Gal and Shavit Ben-Porat review changes in...

Israel’s Economy 2024: A Nation at War

The Taub Center is proud to present the State of the Nation Report 2024. The chapters of the report will be released gradually over the coming month. The chapter being presented now, the first of eight chapters, focuses...

Competition Among Health Funds: Three Decades of the National Health Insurance Law

The full publication is currently available only in Hebrew. To mark 30 years since the enactment of the National Health Insurance Law, the Taub Center is releasing a study reviewing the development of the law over the past...

Working When Sick: Presenteeism in Israel

The Taub Center publishes a study that, for the first time, examines “presenteeism” — people coming to their place of work while sick — in the Israeli labor market. The study highlights the prevalence of the phenomenon, the...

The Health And Economic Burden of Desalination-Related Magnesium Deficiency

This research was generously supported by Yad Hanadiv The prolonged water crisis that Israel suffered from for decades has been curbed thanks to desalination plants, but a side effect of that solution has created an unexpected health problem...

325 Days of War: Data Compilation of the Northern and Southern Communities

These days mark 11 months since the outbreak of the war. Since October 7th, 1,635 Israelis have been murdered and killed, and 109 hostages are still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This brief paper presents information...

Do Israelis Work More or Less? The Elasticity of Employment in the Labor Market

Do Israelis work more or less relative to workers in other countries? Which population groups in Israel work more and which less? How does raising children affect employment and work hours? A new study by Taub Center researchers...

Widening Socioeconomic Inequalities in Early Childhood Language Milestone Attainment in Israel, 2016-2022

Approaching International Children’s Day, we present a study that examines disparities in language abilities among young children. The research, conducted by Taub Center researchers in collaboration with researchers from the KI Institute, found that these disparities are partly...

Artificial Intelligence and the Israeli Labor Market

The Taub Center is publishing a study that examines the level of exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) in the Israeli labor market and its expected effects. To this end, the researchers Michael Debowy, Prof. Gil Epstein, Prof. Benny...

Do Bagrut Exam Accommodations Level the Playing Field or Magnify the Achievement Gap?

Over the past decade, the percentage of students receiving accommodations for learning disabilities during bagrut exams has steadily increased. As the upcoming bagrut exam season approaches, the Taub Center has released a new study examining how these accommodations,...

The Roots of Disparity: Exploring Socioeconomic Influences on Early Childhood Development

This research was generously supported by the Beracha Foundation, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and Yad Hanadiv.

Spatial Norms, Sociocultural Norms, and Family Structure in Israel

In recent years, family structure in Israel has undergone substantial changes, including a decrease in birth rates, a decline in the marriage rate, and an increase in the average age of marriage across all sectors of society. Although...

Expenditure per Student in High Schools in Israel

A new study by the Taub Center examines the expenditure per student in high school in Israel’s State school system, comparing between budgets in the Hebrew State education system, State-religious, and Arab State system. The study relates to...