IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/poleco/v84y2024ics0176268023000101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bread and the dilemmas of socialist paternalism in Israel, 1948–1977

Author

Listed:
  • Goldstein, Eli
  • Schiffman, Daniel

Abstract

This is the first study of bread regulation in a post-World War II democratic country. Under Israel's Labor Socialist regime, bread was mostly privately supplied. In setting prices, policymakers faced tradeoffs between producer profits/viability of small-scale producers and consumer welfare, and between producer profits and minimizing inflation and real appreciation. Subsidization entailed a tradeoff between producer profits and consumer welfare on one hand, and fiscal responsibility and exchange rate unification on the other hand. We study the regulatory changes that took place as the industry structure evolved, and document the changes that occurred in the revealed weights of producer profits, consumer welfare, fiscal responsibility and exchange rate unification. Over 1952–1977, regulatory reforms accelerated the process of technologically-based rationalization, and policy was strongly pro-consumer. This process did not unfold smoothly: Regulatory changes occurred in four phases, with (sometimes) sharp fluctuations in consumer welfare, producer profits, fiscal policy and exchange rate policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Goldstein, Eli & Schiffman, Daniel, 2024. "Bread and the dilemmas of socialist paternalism in Israel, 1948–1977," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:84:y:2024:i:c:s0176268023000101
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2023.102366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268023000101
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2023.102366?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerd Schwartz & Benedict Clements, 1999. "Government Subsidies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 119-148, April.
    2. Daughety, Andrew F, 1984. "Regulation and Industrial Organization," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 92(5), pages 932-953, October.
    3. Paul L. Joskow & Richard Schmalensee & Natalia Tsukanova, 1994. "Competition Policy in Russia during and after Privatization," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 25(1994 Micr), pages 301-381.
    4. Gross, Nachum T., 1990. "Israeli Economic Policies, 1948–1951: Problems of Evaluation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(1), pages 67-83, March.
    5. Peltzman, Sam, 1976. "Toward a More General Theory of Regulation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 211-240, August.
    6. Chambers, Dustin & O'Reilly, Colin, 2022. "Regulation and income inequality in the United States," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    7. Nadav Halevi, 1957. "The Israeli Labor Movement," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 310(1), pages 172-181, March.
    8. Hillman, Arye L, 1982. "Declining Industries and Political-Support Protectionist Motives," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 1180-1187, December.
    9. repec:bla:jecsur:v:13:y:1999:i:2:p:119-47 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Mordechai E. Kreinin, 1956. "Controlled Inflation in Israel, 1949-54," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(2), pages 111-111.
    11. Ephraim Kleiman, 1981. "Israel: Economists in a New State," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 548-579, Fall.
    12. Gründler, Klaus & Krieger, Tommy, 2021. "Using Machine Learning for measuring democracy: A practitioners guide and a new updated dataset for 186 countries from 1919 to 2019," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    13. Metzer,Jacob, 1998. "The Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521465502, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto & Maria Petrova & Ruben Enikolopov, 2008. "The Dracula effect: voter information and trade policy," Economics Working Papers 1296, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2020.
    2. Giacomo Ponzetto, 2008. "Asymmetric information and trade policy," Economics Working Papers 1253, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2010.
    3. Long, Ngo Van & Soubeyran, Antoine, 1996. "Lobbying for protection by heterogeneous firms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 19-32, April.
    4. Pravin Krishna & Devashish Mitra, 2003. "Reciprocated Unilateralism in Trade Policy: An Interest-Group Approach," NBER Working Papers 9631, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hillman, Arye L. & Metsuyanim, Kfir & Potrafke, Niklas, 2015. "Democracy with group identity," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 274-287.
    6. Brainard, S. Lael & Verdier, Thierry, 1997. "The political economy of declining industries: Senescent industry collapse revisited," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 221-237, February.
    7. Martimort, David, 2019. ""When Olson Meets Dahl": From Inefficient Groups Formation to Inefficient Policy-Making," CEPR Discussion Papers 13843, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Schulz, Nicolai, 2020. "The politics of export restrictions: A panel data analysis of African commodity processing industries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    9. Xiaobo Lü & Kenneth F. Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2010. "Envy, Altruism, and the International Distribution of Trade Protection," NBER Working Papers 15700, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Harms, Philipp & Zink, Stefan, 2003. "Limits to redistribution in a democracy: a survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 651-668, November.
    11. Nelson, Douglas, 2006. "The political economy of antidumping: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 554-590, September.
    12. Bradford, Scott, 2003. "Protection and jobs: explaining the structure of trade barriers across industries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 19-39, October.
    13. Daniel Schiffman, 2014. "Richard Kahn and Israeli Economic Policy, 1957 and 1962," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 31-73.
    14. Turrini, Alessandro, 1998. "Endogenous education policy and increasing income inequality between skilled and unskilled workers," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 303-326, May.
    15. Francois, Joseph & Nelson, Douglas R., 2014. "Political support for trade policy in the European Union," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 243-253.
    16. Gould, David M. & Woodbridge, Graeme L., 1998. "The political economy of retaliation, liberalization and trade wars," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 115-137, February.
    17. Goerke, Laszlo, 2020. "A political economy perspective on horizontal FDI in a dynamic Cournot-oligopoly with endogenous entry," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    18. Yoto V. Yotov, 2010. "Trade‐Induced Unemployment: How Much Do We Care?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 972-989, November.
    19. Bommer, Rolf & Schulze, Gunther G., 1999. "Environmental improvement with trade liberalization," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 639-661, November.
    20. Bradford, Scott, 2006. "Protection and unemployment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 257-271, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bread; Regulation; Price controls; Subsidies; Rationalization of industry; Rent seeking; Israel;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N45 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Asia including Middle East
    • P23 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Factor and Product Markets; Industry Studies; Population
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:84:y:2024:i:c:s0176268023000101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505544 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.