Karnit Flug

Focus Areas: Israeli Economy Monetary Policy; Macroeconomic Policy; Labor Markets; Welfare Policy; Central Banking

Karnit Flug holds a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs appointment for the Fall 2026 semester. She joins SIPA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she is a professor of economics, and the Israel Democracy Institute, where she is a Senior Fellow. She served as Governor of the Bank of Israel from 2013 to 2018, after serving as Deputy Governor from 2011 to 2013 and holding a series of senior positions in the Bank’s Research Department. 

During her tenure as Governor, Flug was responsible for Israel’s monetary policy and played a central role in economic and financial policy during a period of significant domestic and global economic change. Earlier in her career, she served as Director of the Bank of Israel’s Research Department from 2001 to 2011. She also worked as a senior research economist at the Inter-American Development Bank and as an economist at the International Monetary Fund.

Her research and policy interests include macroeconomics, monetary and macroeconomic policy, labor markets, welfare policy, and the Israeli economy. She has published research on monetary policy, labor markets, poverty and employment,
human capital, migration, and macroeconomic policy, and has contributed extensively to public-policy research in Israel.

Flug has served on numerous national and international expert committees. These include an independent evaluation committee for the Central Bank of Chile and the monetary-policy evaluation committee of Sveriges Riksbank, as well as Israeli public committees addressing financial regulation, socioeconomic policy, retirement age, poverty, minimum wages, and the defense budget.

Her distinctions include the 2018 Central Banking Governor of the Year Award, repeated “A” grades from Global Finance magazine during her tenure as Governor, and an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University.

Flug received her PhD in Economics from Columbia University, where her dissertation examined labor-market policy in a general-equilibrium framework incorporating international trade and investment in human capital. She also holds an MA and BA, both cum laude, in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Education

• PhD in Economics, Columbia University, 1985
• MA in Economics, cum laude, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1980
• BA in Economics, cum laude, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1978