Distinguished Fellow
Professor Manuel Trajtenberg is currently a member of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. He was elected in the March 2015 elections, where he ran as candidate for Minister of Finance for the (opposition) Labor Party. Prof. Trajtenberg served as Chairman of the Budgeting and Planning Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel from September 2009 through December 2014. Previously he established and was first Chairman of the National Economic Council at the Prime Minister Office, and chief economic advisor to the Prime Minister.
Trajtenberg has been a Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University since 1984, after obtaining his Ph.D. at Harvard University. He held visiting positions at Harvard and Stanford, is a Research Associate of the NBER in Cambridge, USA, and of the CEPR in London, and was a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research. Prof. Trajtenberg served as Head of the Science, Technology and the Economy (STE) Program at the Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies, Technion, and as a consultant for the World Bank.
Prof. Trajtenberg has published books and numerous articles in leading scientific journals, and is regarded as one of the world leading experts in the field of R&D and Innovation.