Manuel Trajtenberg
About
Manuel Trajtenberg has contributed extensively to the economics of innovation, patents, R&D policy, growth, and development, and is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in the field of R&D and Innovation.
From 2006-2017, Trajtenberg held several senior positions in the Israeli government. From 2006-2009, he was the founder and first Chairman of the National Economic Council at the Prime Minister’s Office. From 2009-2014, he was Chairman of the Budgeting and Planning Committee of the Council for Higher Education. He was Chairman of the government Committee for Social and Economic Change following the mass social protests in Israel in the summer of 2011. That committee’s report, which bears his name, has become a pivotal roadmap for socio-economic policy in Israel. He was elected a member of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) for the Labor Party in May 2015 and was the party’s nominee for Finance Minister. In October 2017, he resigned from the Knesset and returned to academia.
Trajtenberg currently leads a policy-oriented project named The first 100 days – a 21st century socio-economic agenda for progressive governments, supported by the Samuel Neaman Institute at the Technion. In its context he has put forward far-reaching proposals for policy reforms in transportation, early-childhood education, parental leave, and fiscal policy, and is currently working on higher education policy.
Relevant Publications
Patents, Citations and Innovations: A Window on the Knowledge Economy (with Adam Jaffe). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN 0-262-10095-9. Includes data CD.
“Market Value and Patent Citations” (with Adam Jaffe and Bronwyn H. Hall). Rand Journal of Economics, Vol. 36 (1), Spring 2005, pp. 16 – 38.
“General Purpose Technologies-Engines of Growth?”(withTimothy Bresnahan). , January 1995, 65(1), pp. 83-108.
“Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations” (with a Jaffe and R.Henderson).Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 108, August 1993, pp. 577-598.
“A Penny for Your Quotes: Patent Citations and the Value ofInnovations”. The Rand Journal of Economics, Spring 1990, 21(1), 172-187.