The Israeli Economy: Immigration, Markets, and Security Since 1948

How does a country with no resources, no currency, and an army fighting for its survival become one of the most dynamic economies on earth?

In 1948 Israel declared independence with roughly 650,000 citizens, no central bank, and an industrial base of textiles, citrus, and polished diamonds. Within three years it doubled its population. Within four decades it had survived a 400% hyperinflation, dismantled a state-run economy, and built the densest concentration of technology start-ups in the world. This is the story of how that happened — and what it cost.

The Israeli Economy is a complete, accessible economic history, built on the university course taught for years at Tel-Hai University. It assumes no background in economics: every concept — inflation targeting, the balance of payments, fiscal rules, the money multiplier — is explained in plain language exactly where it is needed.

Across fourteen modules and six narrative parts, you will discover:

• How German reparations and the tzena austerity years kept a bankrupt new state alive
• Why inflation hit 444% in 1984 — and how the 1985 Stabilization Plan crushed it in twelve months
• How one million Soviet immigrants became the human-capital engine of "Silicon Wadi"
• Why Israeli high-tech now drives the currency, the trade balance, and a quarter of all tax revenue
• How the Bachar reform, mandatory pensions, and a modern central bank rebuilt the financial system
• What the October 7 war revealed about the economy's deepest strengths — and its single greatest risk

Richly illustrated with 30 original charts, a master timeline, a cast of key figures, and a glossary, this is the most comprehensive and readable account of the Israeli economy available in English — equally at home on a student's desk and a curious reader's nightstand.

If you loved Start-up Nation but wanted the full economic machinery behind the miracle, this is your book.