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Economic Affairs

Israel Insights Webinar with Karnit Flug — The Israeli Economy: Quo Vadis?

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Professor Karnit Flug served the the Governor of the Bank of Israel from 2013 to 2018, overseeing the stability of the country's financial system and advising the Israeli government on economic policy, taxation, and growth strategies. In a career spanning four decades, Professor Flug has gained an unparalled insider's view into the stucture, strengths, vulnerabilities, and possible trajectories of the Israeli economy. After two years of war and growing international challenges, where is the Israeli economy now and where might it be going? Join Amichai Magen in conversation with Karnit Flug. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Karnit Flug is the William Davidson Senior Fellow for Economic Policy at the Center for Governance and the Economy at the Israel Democracy Institute. After she completed her five-year term as Governor of the Bank of Israel in 2018, she joined the Department of Economics at Hebrew University. Prior to her appointment as Governor, Flug was the Bank of Israel’s Deputy Governor. Previously, Flug was Director of the Research Department and Chief Economist of the Bank of Israel. She published numerous papers on macroeconomic policies, the labor market, balance of payments and social policies. She was an economist at the International Monetary Fund, before returning to Israel to join the Research Department of the Bank of Israel. She also worked at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C. as a Senior Research Economist. She served on a number of public and government committees, including the Committee on Increasing Competitiveness in the Economy, the Committee for Social and Economic Change ("the Trajtenberg Committee"), the Defense Budget. Flug received her M.A. (cum laude) in Economics from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University.

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Karnit Flug
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Join us for our next webinar with Karnit Flug, the William Davidson Senior Fellow for Economic Policy at the Center for Governance and the Economy at the Israel Democracy Institute, on Wednesday, February 11, at 10:00 am PT.

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Israel Insights Webinar with Sima Shine & Raz Zimmt — The Israel-Iran Conflict: What's Next?

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The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran turned what were formerly close allies into mortal enemies. For decades after the revolution, Iran and Israel fought each other in the shadows - through clandestine operations and proxies - but avoided direct military confrontation. This changed dramatically over the past two years. With Iran on the verge of nuclear breakout, the Islamic Republic launched hundreds of ballistic missiles against Israel in April and October of 2024. Having coordinated its response closely with the United States, Israel struck back in June 2025, aiming to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles and set back its nuclear program. What were the actual outcomes of the 12-day Iran-Israel war? Is Iran more motivated than ever to acquire nuclear weapons? And what comes next in the Iran-Israel conflict? Join Or Rabinowitz in conversation with Sima Shine and Raz Zimmt. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Sima Shine is a Senior Researcher and former Director of the research program "Iran and the Shiite Axis" at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). For most of her career, Ms. Shine served in the Israeli Intelligence Community. Her last position was Head of the Research & Evaluation Division of the Mossad (2003-2007).  After her retirement from the Mossad, Shine served as Deputy Head of Strategic Affairs in Israel's National Security Council (2008-2009) and then (2009 -2016) served in the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, where she was responsible, inter alia, for the Iranian file and was deputy Director General.

Dr. Raz Zimmt is the Director of the Iran and the Shiite Axis research program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). He is also the co-editor of the institute’s journal, Strategic Assessment. He holds a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern history from Tel Aviv University. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on Iranian policy towards Nasserism and Arab radicalism between 1954 and 1967. Additionally, he is a research fellow at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel-Aviv University. He is the author of the book “Iran From Within: State and Society in the Islamic Republic," published (in Hebrew) in 2022, and has published extensively on Iranian politics, society, and foreign policy. He has also regularly provided expert commentary to Israeli and international media. Dr. Zimmt is a veteran Iran watcher in the Israeli Defense Forces, where he served for more than two decades.

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Israel Insights Webinar with Emmanuel Navon — Understanding Israel’s Foreign Policy: Past, Present, and Possible Futures

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Emmanuel Navon webinar

French-born Israeli political scientist, author, and foreign policy expert, Emmanuel Navon is the author of several books, including The Star and the Scepter: A Diplomatic History of Israel, published in 2020 and which has since been translated into French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Mandarin. A comprehensive, historically informed survey of Israel's external relations, The Star and the Scepter provides a unique vantage point from which to explore the past, present, and possible futures of Israel's place in the world. Join Amichai Magen in conversation with Emmanuel Navon.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Emmanuel Navon lectures in International Relations at Tel Aviv University, is a Senior Fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and is a foreign affairs analyst for i24news. The author of four books, he has published in leading IR journals, and his commentary has appeared in outlets such as Le Monde and Newsweek. Previously, Navon served as CEO of ELNET-Israel, a public-policy think tank. Dr. Navon was born in Paris, France, and was educated in a bilingual (French/English) school. He graduated in public administration from Sciences-Po. In 1993 he moved to Israel and earned a Ph.D. in international relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Emmanuel Navon
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Israel Insights Webinar with Ksenia Svetlova — Israel and the Multipolar World: Lessons from Ukraine, Gaza, and Beyond

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What has been Israel’s understanding and response to Russia’s assault on Ukraine? How did the Russia-Ukraine war impact Israeli national security and foreign policy? And what strategic lessons should Israel derive from the Russia-Ukraine war for its own national security? Join former Member of Knesset, Ksenia Svetlova, in conversation with Or Rabinowitz.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ksenia Svetlova is an Executive Director of ROPES – The Regional Organization for Peace, Economics and Security, an associate fellow at Chatham House, London and a former member of the Israeli Knesset. She focuses on issues of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli-Arab relations, Russian influence in the Middle East, as well as the regional and international relations of the Middle East. Svetlova has covered the Middle East for fifteen years for Israeli and International media. She reported from Gaza, West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Libya. 

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Or Rabinowitz

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Ksenia Svetlova
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Israel Insights Webinar with Vivian Bercovici — From Canadian Ambassador to Israeli Podcaster: Life in State of Tel-Aviv and Beyond

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After a distinguished career in law, public policy, and broadcasting in her native Toronto, Vivian Bercovici served as Canada's Ambassador to Israel from 2014 to 2016. She then made Aliyah, becoming an Israeli citizen and settling in Tel-Aviv. Over the past decade, Bercovici has become a leading commentator on Israeli society and politics, foreign policy, and Israel-Diaspora relations. In February 2023, she founded the State of Tel-Aviv podcast and newsletter. After the October 7th Hamas terrorist attack, Vivian Bercovici moved to Kibbutz Ruchama in the south of Israel, renaming her podcast State of Tel-Aviv and Beyond. Join Amichai Magen in conversation with Vivian Bercovici.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Vivian Bercovici served as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel from 2014-16 and, in a short time, established herself as a strong, articulate, and forceful commentator and leader on Israeli politics, foreign policy relationships, and the business environment. Prior to her appointment by former PM Stephen Harper as Ambassador, Vivian practiced law in Toronto for 24 years. She was actively involved in the dynamic Jewish community in Toronto, wrote a column on Israel-related issues in The Toronto Star, and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She currently resides in Israel and is engaged in private business ventures as well as public speaking on issues related to the Middle East, with a particular focus on Israel. 

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Vivian Bercovici
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Tragedy, Triumph, or Both? Israel After Two Years of War — Webinar With Nadav Eyal

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Tragedy, Triumph, or Both? Israel After Two Years of War — Webinar with Nadav Eyal

Join us for a special webinar marking two years since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent multi-front war in the Middle East. The webinar will examine the impact of the ongoing conflict, assess the major geopolitical shifts that have unfolded in the region in the past two years, and identify scenarios for how the war might end. Featuring Amichai Magen, Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies, in conversation with Nadav Eyal, Senior Columnist at Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Nadav Eyal is one of Israel's most prominent journalists and a winner of the Sokolov Award — Israel's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. He writes columns for Yediot Ahronot and Ynet. Beginning on October 7, 2023, he has focused his work on the massacres perpetrated in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza and the northern border of Israel. He also serves as a senior commentator for Israel’s Channel 12. Eyal authored the bestseller REVOLT, the Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization. In 2023, Eyal published HOW DEMOCRACY WINS (if it does). Eyal has held senior positions in major Israeli media groups and interviewed Israeli prime ministers and foreign heads of state. He is the chairman of the Movement for Freedom of Information, an Israeli NGO dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability, aiming to foster a more open, democratic, and accountable society. He earned an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (with merit) as a Chevening Scholar and an LL.B. from Hebrew University (magna cum laude). He received the B'nai B'rith World Center Award for Journalism.

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Nadav Eyal
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Sakshi Umrotkar

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CDDRL Honors Student, 2025-26
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Major: Political Science
Minor: Economics
Hometown: Fremont, California
Thesis Advisor: Vasiliki Fouka

Tentative Thesis Title: Trade, Trust, and Populism: Weighing Norm Adherence against Economic Protectionism

Future aspirations post-Stanford: I'm hoping to explore work in international law and relations between the public and private sectors, since both seem relevant to international economics conversations! I also hope to combine my interest in national security with trade and economics.

A fun fact about yourself: The first guitar solo I learned to play was Hotel California by The Eagles.

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Sociologist Gi-Wook Shin Illuminates How Strategic Human Resource Development Helped Build Asia-Pacific Economic Giants

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Noa Ronkin
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When Stanford sociologist Gi-Wook Shin left his home country of South Korea in 1983 to pursue graduate studies at the University of Washington, he was certain he would return to Korea upon graduation. More than 40 years later, Shin, the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, is still in the United States. 

Yet he does not consider himself a case of brain drain for Korea. Shin, who is also the founding director of the Korea Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and APARC director, has continuously contributed to Korea by leading transnational collaborations, researching and publishing on pressing issues in Korean affairs, and otherwise engaging in diverse intellectual exchanges with the country.

Shin’s experiences sparked his interest in the sociological patterns of mobile talent and a central question: How do countries attract, develop, and retain talent in a globalized world? His new book, The Four Talent Giants (Stanford University Press, 2025), explores that question regarding transnational talent flows from a comparative lens by examining how four strikingly different Asia-Pacific nations – Japan, Australia, China, and India – have become economic powerhouses.

We interviewed Shin about his book – watch:

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The book’s main idea, Shin explains, is that how countries manage talent is key to their strength and future success. He calls the four Asia-Pacific nations the book examines “talent giants” because each has used a distinct talent strategy that has proven critical to national development. Three of these nations – China, Japan, and India – are among the top five economies in the world in terms of GDP, and Australia, despite its relatively small population size, is third in terms of wealth per adult.

In The Four Talent Giants, Shin investigates how these four nations have become global powers and sustained momentum by responding to risks and challenges, such as demographic crises, brain drain, and geopolitical tensions, and what lessons their developmental paths hold for other countries.

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ path to development [...] Rather, the ‘talent giants’ have developed distinctive talent portfolios with different emphases on human versus social capital, domestic versus foreign talents, and homegrown versus foreign-educated talents.
Gi-Wook Shin

A New Framework for Studying Human Resource Development 


Asia’s robust economic growth over the past forty years is nothing short of a remarkable feat. The Asia-Pacific today continues to be the world's fastest-growing region, despite global economic uncertainty. How did this phenomenal ascendance come about?

The existing literature has emphasized common “recipes” of success among Asia-Pacific powers. Endeavoring to find one-size-fits-all formulas that could be replicated in other countries seeking rapid development, it has overlooked the distinct developmental journeys of Asian nations. “We need a new lens, or framework, to explain their successes, while also accounting for cross-national variation in development and sustainability,” writes Shin. 

In his book, Shin examines talent – the skilled occupations essential to a nation’s economy – as a key driver of economic development. While all countries rely on human resources for development, their talent strategies vary based on historical, cultural, and institutional factors. Shin introduces a new framework, talent portfolio theory (TPT), inspired by financial portfolio theory, to analyze and compare these national approaches.

“TPT views a nation’s talent development, like financial investment, as constructing a ‘talent portfolio’ that mixes multiple forms of talent – domestic, foreign, and diasporic – adjusting its portfolio over time to meet new risks and challenges,” he explains. Just as an investor may select different financial products in a mix of assets, countries can create talent portfolios by picking from various strategies.

Shin identifies four main strategies by which a country can harness talent – what he calls the four B's: 

  • “Brain train” signifies efforts to develop and expand a country’s domestic talent or human capital.
  • “Brain gain” refers to attracting foreign talent to strengthen the domestic workforce.
  • “Brain circulation” involves bringing back nationals who have gone abroad for work or study.
  • “Brain linkage” means leveraging the global networks and expertise of citizens living overseas through transnational collaboration.


Shin uses TPT as an analytical framework to examine how each of the four talent giants has constructed its distinct national talent portfolio and how this portfolio has evolved. As in an investment portfolio rebalancing, a nation can maintain diversification across the four B's and within each B. TPT therefore offers a holistic framework for understanding the overall picture of a country’s talent strategy, and how and why it may “rebalance” its talent portfolio.

Throughout the book, Shin shows that, while Japan has relied on the brain train strategy, Australia, whose population was too small for such an approach, emphasized brain gain. China used brain circulation: it first sent students and professionals abroad to learn, then implemented policies to encourage them to return. India, by contrast, established linkages among its diaspora and used them to develop its economy.

Immigrants have not just filled jobs. They have created new industries and helped the United States and their home countries alike. If the US makes it harder for talent to come in and stay, it risks hurting its long-term success.
Gi-Wook Shin

New Geopolitics of Global Talent: Lessons and Policy Implications


The case studies of the four talent giants reveal that there is no single path to talent-driven development. Each of the four Asia-Pacific countries has built its unique talent portfolio, balancing human and social capital, homegrown and foreign-educated individuals, and domestic and diasporic talents. While the talent giants use all four B's to some extent, each emphasizes them differently, reflecting diverse strategies and development paths. The core findings of these studies offer valuable insights for countries aiming to design effective talent policies. 

The four B's were instrumental in the economic rise of the four Asian nations, and they will be equally critical in addressing new challenges facing all economies, from demographic crises to emergent geopolitical tensions. For the United States, one such challenge is its sprawling competition with China, where the battle for talent is heating up in the race for technological supremacy.

Shin warns that the advantage the United States has long held in technological innovation, driven by its ability to attract skilled foreign talent, is now at risk from the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies, pressures on universities, and cuts to research funding. “Immigrants have not just filled jobs,” he emphasizes. “They have created new industries and helped the US and their home countries. If the US makes it harder for talent to come in and stay, it risks hurting its long-term success.”

The Four Talent Giants is an outcome of Shin’s longstanding project investigating Talent Flows and Development, now one of the research tracks he leads at the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL), which he launched in 2022. Housed at APARC, the lab is an interdisciplinary research initiative addressing Asia’s social, cultural, economic, and political challenges through comparative, policy-relevant studies. SNAPL’s education mission is to cultivate the next generation of researchers and policy leaders by offering mentorships and fellowship opportunities for students and emerging scholars.

Shin notes that the SNAPL team illustrates all four B’s in his talent portfolio theory, as some members are U.S.-born and trained, some come from Asia and, after working at the lab, return to their home countries, whereas some stay here, promoting linkages with their home countries. “In many ways, this project shows what is possible when we invest in talent and encourage international collaboration.”

In the Media


Stanford Scholar Reveals How Talent Development Strategies Shape National Futures
The Korean Daily, July 13, 2025 (interview)
- English version
- Korean version

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A New Approach to Talent Development: Lessons from Japan and Singapore

Stanford researchers Gi-Wook Shin and Haley Gordon propose a novel framework for cross-national understanding of human resource development and a roadmap for countries to improve their talent development strategies.
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In his new book, The Four Talent Giants, Shin offers a new framework for understanding the rise of economic powerhouses by examining the distinct human capital development strategies used by Japan, Australia, China, and India.

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DP20306 Competition and Management Upgrading: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia

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We experimentally test two seminal hypotheses on the impact of competition on firms' management upgrading. In a first experiment, we protect firms from labor market competition by reducing the risk that a freshly trained manager would be poached by a rival firm. We find that this protection does not increase firms' investment in management training. In a second suite of experiments, we boost perceived product market competition by informing firms either that rival firms have received management training or that foreign firms are gaining easier access to the domestic market. Again, we find no evidence that this increases firms' average willingness to invest in management training. To explain why firms do not feel threatened by competition, we present evidence suggesting that, in contrast to commonly held assumptions, firm managers in our setting hold a mental model of competition that posits positive — instead of negative — spillovers, arising primarily from differentiation.

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CEPR Press, Paris & London
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Marcel Fafchamps
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CEPR Discussion Paper No. 20306

Shanjun Li

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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor, Environmental Social Sciences, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Denning Global Sustainability Professorship
Director of the Sustainability and Energy Transition Program, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
ShanjunLi Vert.png Ph.D.

Shanjun Li is a Professor in the Environmental Social Sciences department of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and holds the Denning Global Sustainability Professorship as a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. His research areas include environmental and energy economics, urban and transportation economics, empirical industrial organization, and Chinese economy. His recent work addresses pressing sustainability challenges and the rapid rise of clean energy industries in China, exploring their global implications to support evidence-based policymaking.

Prior to joining Stanford, he held the Kenneth L. Robinson Chair in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and served as the Director of the Cornell Institute for China Economic Research (CICER). Li is a co-editor for the International Journal of Industrial Organization and the Journal of Public Economics. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF).

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