Background
BEN-PORATH, Yoram was born in 1937 in Ramat Gan, Israel.
BEN-PORATH, Yoram was born in 1937 in Ramat Gan, Israel.
Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts Hebrew University Jerusalem, 1961, 1963. Doctor of Philosophy Harvard University, 1967.
Assistant Professor of Economics, University Chicago, 1967. Lector, Senior Lector, Association Professor of Economics, Hebrew University, 1967-1970,
1970-1972, 1973-1977. Consultant, Rand Corporation, California, since 1968.
Visiting Lector Economics, Harvard University, 1971-1972.
Visiting Professor of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America,
1976-1977. Fellow, Institute, Institution Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1977-1978.
Professor of Economics, Hebrew University Jerusalem, since 1977. Director, Maurice Falk Institute, Institution Economics Research Israel, Jerusalem, since 1979.
Association Editor, Review of Economics and Statistics,
1972-.
Mostly worked in the economics of human re
sources — human capital, labour supply and economics of the family. Papers reflect a dialogue between empirical work and theory — mostly extensions of microeconomic analysis to nonmarket activities. The theoretical model of human capital accumulation which generates the concave life-cycle of earnings was preceded by empirical work on this topic.
Interest in population generated by Kuznet’s work led to a series of empirical and micro-theoretical studies of fertility. This work on the family led to questions on the role of families in the institutional set-up of the economy and the importance of identity of transactions in a world of imperfect information. Interest in another border area, political economy, is reflected in an early paper which identified a political business cycle in Israel, analysis of the tax reform and recent work on the response of the public sector to demographic pressures.