National Security and Democracy on the Internet in Israel

A recent parliamentary committee meeting devoted to “Freedom of Expression and the Internet”, began with a short demonstration in which Internet sites describing the Order of Battle of the Israeli Airforce, Nuclear weapons1, as well\ud as some pornography were reviewed. Members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) were shocked and astounded -- not by the pornography, but rather by the fact that “classified” information was readily available on the Internet. The discussion quickly turned from dealing with freedom of expression, to how to prevent information of this kind from being readily available on the Internet. This incident serves to underscore the inherent conflict of values in Israeli society -- the primacy of national security, which subordinates almost every other aspect of democracy in Israel, versus the ideal of liberal democracy focusing on individual rights -- chief among these being freedom of expression. These conflicting values have been brought to the surface in recent years due to the incredible growth of Internet use by the general public in Israel

The Gaza Strip as Panopticon and Pansprectron: The Disciplining and Punishing of a Society\ud

This paper explores the different yet complementary aspects of the panopticon and the panspectron using the case study of the Israeli controlled Palestinian territory, the Gaza Strip. Beginning with a brief theoretical discussion of the concept of panopticon and panspectron expanding on the existing literature, the paper moves on to discuss the implementation of panoptical and panspectral technologies and practices in the Gaza Strip and situates these within a larger framework of control of the Palestinian population under Israeli occupation, and discusses seepage of these surveillance technologies into Israeli society proper and\ud beyond into the international arena.\u

Fiscal Rules and Composition Bias in OECD Countries

Using a sample of OECD countries, this paper finds that while fiscal rules succeeded in reducing total government expenditures and budget deficits in the medium term, they significantly affected the composition of government expenditure: the ratio of social transfers to government consumption declined. In contrast, we do not find a stable effect of fiscal rules on public investment. It is shown that the compositional shift against social transfers is beyond “from welfare to work” policies, which have been adopted by many OECD countries during the nineties. Our empirical examination reveals that the reduction of social transfers relative to government consumption did not occur in countries with strong legal protection to social rights.fiscal rules, government deficit, government expenditure, expenditures composition

Low Take-up Rates: The Role of Information

This paper exploits a quasi-natural experiment to study the role of information in determining take-up patterns of social benefits in a non-stigma environment. We find that take-up rate of households who have the incentive to search for information for a longer period of time is between 8 and 13 percentage points higher as compared to a control group of households. This result is robust to the inclusion of various household characteristics. Our finding provides strong empirical support for information as an important explanation for low take-up rates.take-up, social benefits, information cost

Parental Actions and Siblings’ Inequality

The model presented in the paper generates important implications concerning how the allocation of resources between children varies across income groups. In the model, poor and middle-income families tend to channel their resources into a few children whereas rich families (and perhaps very poor families as well) tend to allocate resources more evenly. As a result, poor and middle- income families tend to generate more inequality relative to richer families.

The Effect of Benefits Level on Take-up Rates: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

This paper exploits a quasi-natural experiment to study the effect of social benefits level on take-up rates. We find that households who are eligible for double benefits (twins) have much higher take-up rate - up to double - as compared to a control group of households. Our estimated effect of benefits level is much higher relative to the standard cross section estimates. This finding is less exposed to a selection bias that might plague much of the previous research on the link between benefits level and take-up. It provides strong empirical support for the level of benefits as a key factor in determining take-up rates.take-up, social benefits