Prof. Rafi Melnick

Prof. Rafi Melnick holds a doctoral degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley (1979) and he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Statistics and his Master’s degree in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Currently, Prof. Melnick serves as the president of Reichman University and as a professor both at the Tiomkin School of Economics and at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University. Prof. Melnick served as Vice President for Academic Affairs twice, and he is the former Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy. Moreover, he founded the Tiomkin School of Economics at Reichman University.

Prof. Melnick is an expert in Israeli economy – his publications address the fields of monetary economics, the Israeli economy and Applied Econometrics. He developed the “Melnick State of the Economy Index”, which was designed to detect in real time, the level and the intensity of turning points in economic activity in Israel. Previously, he was a member of the Monetary Committee of the Bank of Israel, served as Deputy Director of Research at the Bank of Israel, was a lecturer at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a visiting professor at the universities of Boston and Davis – California. In addition, Prof. Melnick was a former member of the Advisory Committee of the Economic Council at the Prime Minister’s Office, the Advisory Committee to the Minister of Finance and Chair of the Macroeconomic Forum of the director general of the Treasury and a member in the Committee for Social and Economic Change.

At present he is a member of the Investment Committee of the Clal Insurance Company. He used to serve as Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Clal Insurance Company, the Migdal Insurance Company Ltd. and Magen Ltd., as an economic consultant to Bank Leumi, as a member of the Board of Directors of Psagot-Ofek Securities and Investment Ltd. and a member of their investment committee, while serving as a research fellow at the Center for Social Policy Studies Research in Israel.