The former leaders of three nations’ central banks and a former finance minister gathered last week for the launch event of an Israeli institute that aims to inform effective policies for a rapidly changing global economy.
The Jacob A. Frenkel and Mortimer B. Zuckerman Institute for Global Economics at Tel Aviv University was inaugurated during a geopolitical economic symposium featuring Janet Yellen, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve System; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigerian minister of finance and former managing director of the World Bank; Axel Weber, chair of the UBS Group and former President of Germany’s Deutsche Bundesbank; and the symposium’s moderator, Jacob Frenkel, chair of JPMorgan Chase International and former governor of the Bank of Israel.
Hosted at TAU’s Coller School of Management, the symposium marked the Frenkel-Zuckerman Institute’s first annual conference convening academics, business leaders and high-level government and industry representatives for the purpose of presenting major projects formulated by the nascent institute’s economic scientists and scholars.
“We are excited to launch the Frenkel-Zuckerman Institute for Global Economics,” said Eric Gertler, trustee of the Zuckerman Institute and Zuckerman Family Foundation, a founding supporter of the Frenkel-Zuckerman Institute. “We like to support talent and programs that can have a significant impact, and we feel that this institute at Tel Aviv University will no doubt have an outsized influence on global economic issues.”
The institute will serve as an international center bringing together world leaders, scientists and scholars from different disciplines to advance Israel in the global economy and contribute towards improved economic policy-making within the global economic system.
“Our vision is for the institute to become a hub for developing sound economic policy and cutting-edge research on international finance, as well as on emerging issues such as the effects of technology on economic growth,” said James Gertler, a trustee of the Zuckerman Institute and the Zuckerman Family Foundation. “We believe that the institute will blaze a trail generating new ideas, analyses and perspectives, and will help Israel and other nations navigate their economies towards prosperity and stability in an era where change is occurring at an ever-increasing rate.”
“We will try in this institute to bring the best—not only in theoretical studies, which are extremely important, but also in applicable studies to specify and articulate what it takes for the economy to be successful and prosperous,” said Frenkel.
The first director tapped to the institute is Leonardo Leiderman, the Jack and Lisa Yael Professor of Comparative Economics at TAU’s Eitan Berglas School of Economics, as well as the chief economic adviser of Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest commercial bank.
