Shlomo Yitzhaki ( he, שלמה יצחקי; 17 January 1944 – 17 April 2023) was an Israeli economist and the Sam M. Cohodas

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Agricultural economics Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber products. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that specif ...

at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

. From 2002 to 2012 he served as the chief statistician and director of the

Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics ( he, הלשכה המרכזית לסטטיסטיקה, ''HaLishka HaMerkazit LiStatistika''; ar, دائرة الإحصاء المركزية الإسرائيلية), abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government ...

Life and career

Yitzhaki was born on 17 January 1944. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the Hebrew University in 1976. He spent a year as a visiting scholar at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and then returned to Jerusalem as a lecturer in 1977. From 1981 to 1982 he worked as a research economist at the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...

. In 1982 he returned to academia as a senior lecturer at Hebrew University, where he remained until his death. He joined the faculty as an associate professor in 1990, and earned his

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

in 1993. In 2008 he was granted emeritus status. Yitzhaki first consulted as an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

in 1986, and was appointed director of the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2002. He represented Israel at the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

. He also consulted with the governments of many developing nations and was considered a "world-class expert" regarding the design of tax systems. In 2008 he chaired the Yitzhaki Committee examining the rise of poverty in Israel. Yitzhaki died on 17 April 2023, at the age of 79.הלך לעולמו פרופ' שלמה יצחקי

Publications

The following partial list of publications is largely taken from the Hebrew University Faculty Directory. *2003, "''Gini's Mean difference: a superior measure of variability for non-normal distributions''", '' Metron - International Journal of Statistics'' *2002, "''Decomposing World Income Distribution: Does the World Have a Middle Class?''", ''

Review of Income and Wealth The ''Review of Income and Wealth'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth. It was established in 1951 and published annually until 1966, when ...

'' *1998, "''More than a Dozen Alternative Ways of Spelling Gini''"
''Journal of Economic Inequality''
*1996, "''Dalton improving tax reform when households are heterogeneous''"
''Journal of Public Economics''
*1995, "''Dalton improving indirect tax reform''", ''

American Economic Review The ''American Economic Review'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Economic Association. First published in 1911, it is considered one of the most prestigious and highly distinguished journals in the field of ec ...

'' *1995, "''Equity, equality and welfare''", ''

European Economic Review The ''European Economic Review'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research in economics. The journal was established in 1969 and the five main editors are: Florin Bilbiie, (University of Lausanne); David K. Levine, (European Universi ...

'' *1995, "''Changing ranks and the inequality impacts of taxes and transfers''", ''

National Tax Journal The National Tax Association - Tax Institute of America (NTA) is a US non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to the study and discussion of public taxation, spending, and borrowing decisions by governments around the world. Since its fou ...

'' *1991, "''Calculating jackknife variance estimators for parameters of the Gini method''", ''

Journal of Business & Economic Statistics The ''Journal of Business & Economic Statistics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Statistical Association. The journal covers a broad range of applied problems in business and economic statistics, including f ...

'' *1991,"''Income stratification and income inequality''", ''

'' *1991,"''Welfare dominance: An application to commodity taxation''", ''

'' *1987,"''On the Excess Burden of Tax Evasion''", '' Public Finance Review'' *1985,"''Income inequality effects by income source: a new approach and applications to the United States''", ''

The Review of Economics and Statistics ''The'' ''Review of Economics and Statistics'' is a peer-reviewed 103-year-old general journal that focuses on applied economics, with specific relevance to the scope of quantitative economics. The ''Review'', edited at the Harvard University’s K ...

References

1944 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Israeli economists Iraqi Jews Israeli Mizrahi Jews 21st-century Israeli economists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Israeli people of Iraqi-Jewish descent People from Baghdad {{israel-economist-stub