Location: Neve Ilan Hotel
All Expenses Paid
What is economic freedom? Why is it important and how does it produce growth and prosperity? Listen, learn, and discuss with some of the best economists and leading policymakers from around the world.
Applications are now open for any Israeli student (2nd year and above, including MA and PhD students).
Deadline: February 20, 2025, by 20:00
Applications are open. Good Luck!
Download flyerSunday, March 9
Monday, March 10
Tuesday, March 11
Wednesday, March 12
Thursday, March 13
Doug Irwin
Douglas Irwin is John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2017), which The Economist and Foreign Affairs selected as one of their Best Books of the Year. He is president-elect of the Economic History Association (2022-23).
He is the author of Free Trade Under Fire (Princeton University Press, fifth edition 2020), Trade Policy Disaster: Lessons from the 1930s (MIT Press, 2012), Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression (Princeton University Press, 2011), The Genesis of the GATT (Cambridge University Press, 2008, co-authored with Petros Mavroidis and Alan Sykes), Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade (Princeton University Press, 1996), and many articles on trade policy and economic history in books and professional journals.
He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He worked on trade policy issues while on the staff of President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and later worked in the International Finance Division at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. Before joining Dartmouth, Irwin taught at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
Shlomit Wagman
Dr. Shlomit Wagman is the former Director-General of the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority, Chair of the FATF’s Operational Working Group, and Director-General of the Israel Privacy Protection Authority. Currently, she serves as the Chief Regulatory Officer at Rapyd, a leading global payment unicorn, and a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Dr. Wagman holds PhD and Master’s degrees from Yale Law School, along with a BA from the Hebrew University. A recognized global expert in the fields of money laundering, terrorism financing, fintech, cryptocurrency, and cybercrime, she has recently testified before the US Senate and other parliaments. She has been ranked among the top leaders in the Israeli economy multiple times in recent years.
Robert Lawson
Robert A. Lawson is Clinical Professor in Economics, Jerome M. Fullinwider Centennial Chair in Economic Freedom, and Director of the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. He earned his B.S. in economics from the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from Florida State University. A Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute, he has numerous professional publications in journals such as Public Choice, Cato Journal, Journal of Labor Research, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, and the European Journal of Political Economy. Prof. Lawson has served as President of the Association of Private Enterprise Education and is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.
Omer Moav
Omer Moav is a professor of economics at the Reichman University and at the University of Warwick. He received his PhD in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and spent a year at MIT as a post-doc fellow. Moav was awarded in 2012 the Landau prize from the Israeli mifal hapais for his achievements in research in macroeconomics, he was awarded the Rector’s prize from the Hebrew University in 2006 for his research and teaching, and served as the head of the advisory board to the Israeli minister of finance in 2009. Moav’s research focuses on economic growth and development and is published in the leading journals of economics. He often comments in the Israeli and international media on the Israeli economy.
Ján Oravec
Ján Oravec is a prominent Slovak economist and policymaker with extensive experience in public administration and economic reform. Currently, he serves as Managing Director at Catallaxia, s.r.o., a consultancy focused on economic and entrepreneurial policy. Previously, he was a Member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (2022–2023) and the State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy of Slovakia (2020–2022), where he played a key role in fostering business-friendly policies and reducing bureaucratic burdens.
For over 16 years, Oravec was the President of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Slovakia, advocating for economic freedom and entrepreneurship. His work is characterized by efforts to streamline legislation, promote entrepreneurial liberties, and enhance Slovakia’s competitiveness on a global scale. Oravec is an influential voice on economic and regulatory reform, regularly engaging in public discussions and thought leadership through various platforms.
Micah Avni
Micah Avni is an accomplished entrepreneur and advocate for social and economic change. He is the founder and former CEO of Peninsula Group Ltd., a publicly traded Israeli commercial finance institution, where he served for 18 years. Under his leadership, Peninsula became a leading provider of financial solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises in Israel. Avni was recognized among the 100 most influential people in Israel by The Marker magazine in 2015, 2016, and 2018.
Before establishing Peninsula, Avni was a General Partner at Jerusalem Global Ventures, a venture capital firm, and a corporate attorney at Yigal Arnon & Co., one of Israel’s premier law firms. He also served as the Chairman of the Association of Credit Companies in Israel, working to promote fair and efficient credit practices in the financial sector.
In addition to his business achievements, Avni is a prominent advocate against terrorism and online extremism, driven by the personal tragedy of his father’s murder in a terrorist attack. He has dedicated himself to raising awareness about the misuse of social media by terror groups and has worked to inspire policy changes within major technology companies to combat such activities.
Avni holds an LLB from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a joint MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Tel Aviv University’s Recanati School of Business Administration. He resides in Tel Aviv with his wife and four children.
Yehonatan Givati
Professor Yehonatan Givati is the Sylvan M. Cohen Professor at Hebrew University Law School and a member of Hebrew University’s Center for the Study of Rationality. His research focuses on the economic analysis of law, encompassing both theoretical and empirical approaches. He applies the tools of law and economics to key areas such as tax law, law enforcement, and administrative law and regulation. In addition, he has made significant contributions to the study of private law and judicial behavior. Professor Givati holds a Ph.D. in Economics (2013) and an S.J.D. (2011) from Harvard University, where he also completed an M.A. in Economics (2011) and an LL.M. (2007). He earned his M.A. in Economics (2005) and LL.B. in Law and Economics (2002) from Hebrew University. His work has been widely published in leading journals, including the Journal of Legal Studies, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, the Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, and the Journal of Law & Economics. Some of his notable publications include “Harm Displacement and Tort Doctrine,” “How Would Judges Compose Judicial Panels? Theory and Evidence from the Supreme Court of Israel,” and “Theories of Tax Deductions: Income Measurement versus Efficiency.”
Ricky Maman
Ricky Maman is a research fellow at Kohelet Policy Forum, and a Economics columnist in Makor Rishon newspaper. She co-founded the ‘Hador Haba: Parents for Choice in Education’ as well as ‘Tacharut — The Movement for Freedom of Employment’ organizations. Ricky holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and filmography from Tel Aviv University, a degree in education and a teaching certificate from Herzog College, and a Master’s degree in public policy from Hebrew University. She formerly served as an academic director at the Tikvah Fund, processes manager at “Tovanot” and project manager at the The Jewish Statesmanship Center. Ricky has published several policy papers in the field of education policy.
