Workshop: Erez on Greek Popular Music; Rosenhek on Israel’s Political Economy (NYU, Dec 4, 2015)

12/4/15 – Taub Center Graduate Workshop

 

10am – 2pm

The Taub Center organizes regular workshops for graduate students and faculty in the field of Israel Studies at NYU and other universities in the tri-state area. The regional workshops are an opportunity for students and faculty to present and discuss their respective areas of research.  The workshops also serve as an important forum for networking and strengthening the field of Israel Studies.

First Floor, 14A Washington Mews

Coffee is served from 10 – 10:30am, and a kosher lunch served at noon.

 

RSVP here.

 

10:30am

Oded Erez
UCLA

Becoming Mediterranean: Greek Popular Music and the Politics of Ethnicity in Israel

Oded Erez is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Musicology and the Program in Experimental Critical Theory at UCLA. His current research focuses on the politics of ethnicity, diaspora, and vernacular cosmopolitanism in popular music and film. He has presented his work in wide range of disciplinary contexts, including at the annual meetings of the American Musicological Society, the American Comparative Literature Association, and the  Association for Israel Studies. He currently teaches at the Hebrew University’s School of Arts. His paper “The Practice of Quoting Everyday Life: Quotation as Political Praxis in the songs of HaBiluim” will be published in the upcoming issue of Theory and Criticism (Teoria U’vikoret).

 

12:30pm

Ze’ev Rosenhek
The Open University of Israel

The Dynamics of Israel’s Political Economy: Change and Continuity in State-Economy Relations

Zeev Rosenhek is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication at the Open University of Israel. His main research interests lie in the fields of political and economic sociology, with a particular focus on processes of institutional change and continuity in state-economy relations. He has conducted research on the political economy of the welfare state, labor migration, and the politics of institutionalization of the neo-liberal regime in Israel. He is the co-author of The Israeli Central Bank: Political Economy, Global Logics and Local Actors (Routledge, 2011) with Daniel Maman, and has published numerous articles in books and journals. He is currently conducting research on the emergence and dynamics of the institutional field of financial literacy in Israel and its interfaces with transnational knowledge and policy networks.

 

New Article: Horev et al, Preservatives in Cosmetics in Israel Conform to EU Legislation

Horev, L.,  M. Isaksson, M. Engfeldt, L. Persson, A. Ingber, and M. Bruze. “Preservatives in Cosmetics in the Israeli Market Conform Well to the EU Legislation.” Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology 29.4 (2015): 761-6.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jdv.12676

 

Abstract

Background

Preservatives are important and frequent skin sensitizers, found in a wide range of products for personal and occupational use. According to the European legislation, some cosmetic ingredients are restricted in terms of quantity and a detailed list of ingredients must be present on the product or packaging.

Objectives

To examine the use of preservatives in common cosmetics on the Israeli market.

Materials/Methods

Sixty different Israeli brand cosmetics, including shampoos, liquid soaps, body creams and hand creams were randomly selected. Ingredient labels were examined. The products were investigated by the chromotropic acid method for release of formaldehyde and by high performance liquid chromatography for the presence of formaldehyde, DMDM hydantoin and methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone (MCI/MI) and MI content.

Results

All products but one contained a detailed list of ingredients printed on the package. According to labelling, the most prevalent preservatives in Israeli shampoos and liquid soaps were DMDM hydantoin and MCI/MI. Hand creams and body creams contained mainly parabens but also iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, phenoxyethanol and DMDM hydantoin. Formaldehyde in doses from 4 to 429 ppm, and DMDM hydantoin were detected in 38 and 16 (63% and 27%) of the products, respectively. MCI/MI was detected in 11 (18%) of the products, with highest prevalence in rinse- off products (55%). Excluding one hand cream which measured 106 ppm MI, the amount of formaldehyde, DMDM hydantoin, MCI/MI and MI was within the allowed concentrations by the European directive in all cases.

Conclusions

In Israel, adaptation of the European directive prevails, as shown by the measurements we performed on randomly selected products.

 
 
 
 

New Article: Shmueli, Calculation of the Israeli Risk Adjustment Rates

Shmueli, Amir. “On the Calculation of the Israeli Risk Adjustment Rates.” European Journal of Health Economics 16.3 (2015): 271-277.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10198-014-0572-x

 

Abstract

Objective

The Israeli risk adjustment formula, introduced in 1995 and which serves for the allocation of the health budget to the sickness funds, is unique compared to countries with a similar national health insurance system in that it is not calculated on the basis of actual cost data of the sickness funds but on the basis of quantities retrieved from surveys. The current article aims to analyze the implications of the Israeli methodology.

Methods

The article examines the validity of the Israeli methodology used to set the 2004 risk adjustment rates and compare these rates with the “correct” ones, which are derived from the 2004 internal relative cost scales of the sickness funds.

Results

The Israeli methodology ignores services provided by the sickness funds and assumes constant unit cost across the sickness funds, an assumption which is implausible. Comparing the actual and the “correct” rates, it turns out that the actual rates over-compensate all the sickness funds for members in age 0–14, and under-compensate them for insurees aged 55+. In age 0–4, the over-compensation per capita is about NIS 1,500 while the under-compensation in age group 75+ reaches NIS 1,600.

Conclusions

The current risk adjustment formula distorts the intended competition on good quality care among the sickness funds, and turns it into a competition on profitable members. After 18 years of using incorrect rates, the Israeli risk adjustment rates should be calculated, as is common in other systems, based on individual cost data from the sickness funds.