Assaf Razin, Leading Israeli Economist, Dies at 85

Prof. Assaf Razin, one of Israel's leading economists, died at 85 after a career that connected Israeli macroeconomic policy with global academic research. Reports said he taught at Tel Aviv University and Cornell, advised major central banks, served as the government's chief economic adviser and led the Finance Ministry's Economic Planning Authority in the 1970s. He was dismissed after warning the Begin government about an inflation crisis, a warning later associated with Israel's early-1980s hyperinflation. Razin later received the EMET Prize and an Israeli Economic Association lifetime-achievement award, and wrote on Israel's move from a poor, young state to an OECD economy.