Bank Of Israel

In this study, we examine the Federal Reserve's communication strategies during the COVID‐19 pandemic, comparing them with communication during previous periods of economic stress. Using specialized dictionaries tailored to COVID‐19, unconventional monetary policy (UMP), and financial stability, combined with sentiment analysis and topic modeling techniques, we identify a distinct focus in Fed communication during the pandemic on financial stability, market volatility, social welfare, and UMP, characterized by notable contextual uncertainty. Through comparative analysis, we juxtapose the Fed's communication during the COVID‐19 crisis with its responses during the dot‐com and global financial crises, examining content, sentiment, and timing dimensions. Our findings reveal that Fed communication and policy actions were more reactive to the COVID‐19 crisis than to previous crises. Additionally, declining sentiment related to financial stability in interest rate announcements and minutes anticipated subsequent accommodative monetary policy decisions. We further document that communicating about UMP has become the “new normal” for the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes and Chairman's speeches since the Global Financial Crisis, reflecting an institutional adaptation in communication strategy following periods of economic distress. These findings contribute to our understanding of how central bank communication evolves during crises and how communication strategies adapt to exceptional economic circumstances.

It is widely believed that university and corporate research are complementary: companies invest in research in part to develop the capacity to absorb the knowledge emerging from universities. However, as we show in this paper, corporate research in the United States emerged when American universities were behind the world frontier in scientific research. Why, then, did for-profit businesses choose to invest in creating new knowledge, much of which could spill over to rivals, and whose conduct presented many managerial challenges? We argue that corporate research in America arose in the 1920s to compensate for weak university research, not to complement it. Using newly assembled firm-level data from the 1920s and 1930s, we find that companies invested in research because inventions increasingly relied on science but American universities were unable to meet their needs. Large firms close to the technological frontier and operating in concentrated industries were likely to invest in research, especially in scientific disciplines where American universities lagged behind the scientific frontier. Corporate science seems to have paid off, resulting in novel patents and high market valuations for firms engaged in research. Funding: A. Arora, S. Belenzon, and J. Suh acknowledge support from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. S. Belenzon and Y. Yafeh gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Israel Science Foundation [Grant No. 963-2020]. K. Kosenko is grateful for support from the Bank of Israel. Y. Yafeh acknowledges support from the Krueger Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Business. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.18053 .

Introduction Human breast milk is the recommended nutrition for newborns and premature neonates according to the World Health Organization. Breastmilk is of utmost physiological importance for neonates and is crucial for the survival of premature newborns, preventing necrotizing enterocolitis and other medical conditions. Recently, the National Israeli Human Milk Bank was established by the emergency medical service- Magen David Adom (MDA). Around 10% of women willing to donate milk to the milk bank are taking medications. The Drug Consultation Center at Shamir Medical Center provides guidance regarding dilemmas related to these milk donations. Our aim is to set criteria for milk donations designated for premature newborns, from women treated with medications. Methods In order to maximize the potential of milk donations, we assess the safety of the donation by evaluating the Relative Infant Dose (RID) and other pharmacokinetics (PK) parameters: molecular weight, protein binding and oral bioavailability of the medication. Possible undesirable effects on the premature newborn are also being taken into consideration. The attitude toward medication compatibility with breastfeeding differs between a mother breastfeeding her own child versus milk donation intended for premature newborns. Upon the safety assessment, recommendation regarding the milk donation are provided: decline, accept donation, or accept the donation-but, with dilution. In the latter case, the milk amount will not exceed 10% of the total batch. Other donations from the same batch should not contain other medications from the same pharmacological group. Results Around 65 consultations were performed. 30% of the queries were regarding anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications, 14% regrading anti-thrombotic and anti-platelet therapy and 10% - treatment for allergic conditions. 5% of donations were declined due to potentially hazardous medications (e.g. doxorubicin). 21% of donations were accepted (e.g. loratadine). In 74% of the queries, the recommendation was to accept the milk donation with dilution (e.g. fluoxetine). Conclusions The human milk bank is a lifesaving service. In the near future, milk donations’ samples will be transferred to our unit in order to measure the concentration of the medications. This collaboration enables to use donated human breastmilk ”up to the last drop”.

Background and Objectives Spontaneous massive foetomaternal haemorrhage (SM‐FMH) is a rare yet critical condition that poses substantial risk to foetal health and survival. Existing data indicate that many cases may be undiagnosed. The current study aimed to investigate and validate the utility of identifying mixed field red blood cell (RBC) agglutination during maternal blood typing as a diagnostic aid for SM‐FMH. Materials and Methods Retrospective analysis of medical records from neonates born at our tertiary, university‐affiliated medical centre between 2016 and 2023 was performed. Diagnosis of SM‐FMH was based on neonates born with severe anaemia (haematocrit [HCT] <15%) within the first 24 h post‐delivery with positive maternal Kleihauer–Betke (KB) test. Maternal ABO/Rhesus D (RhD) blood typing results were scrutinized with the primary objective of assessing the ability to identify dual RBC populations in cases clinically diagnosed with SM‐FMH. Results Among 29,192 neonates studied, a mere 0.02% (5 cases) exhibited severe SM‐FMH. Notably, a mixed field RBC agglutination was discerned in 80% (4/5) of these cases. Conclusion This study underscores the significance of detecting mixed field RBC agglutination during antepartum maternal ABO/RhD blood typing as a potential indicator for SM‐FMH. Increased awareness among blood bank technology specialists and obstetricians regarding these laboratory findings could prove instrumental in saving foetal lives.

Does guilt affect performance? In our study, we exploit a new measure of justification for penalty decisions in football and find that unjustified penalty calls negatively impact penalty conversion rates. This effect escalates in relation to social norms of trust. To add a layer of complexity, we incorporate the variance originating from players who do not play in their countries of origin. This allows us to include the norms of both the league and the kickers’ countries of origin. From this, we divide the constraints on egoism into two categories: internal sanctions, such as guilt, and external sanctions, such as shame. Our findings reveal that both guilt and shame significantly influence the performance of penalty kickers.

This paper explores the interplay between domestic and global monetary policies, capital flows, and exchange rate dynamics in Israel. Using a novel dataset of daily sectoral FX transactions, we examine the transmission of monetary shocks identified from yield curve shifts around central bank announcements. Local projections reveal that foreign financial investors respond strongly and symmetrically to domestic and foreign shocks, which suggests that they react to the interest rate differential. Domestic institutional investors counteract this by rebalancing their portfolios. In particular, the impact of US monetary shocks on Israeli institutional investors and on the exchange rate depends on the shocks’ correlation with the S&P 500 stock index. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which domestic and global monetary policies influence small open economies like Israel, and highlight the limited monetary autonomy of small open economies even under flexible exchange rates.

This study examines the household consumption utilizing data from the Israeli Consumer Expenditure Surveys and longitudinal administrative income records for 2004–2016. Three key findings challenge the predictions of the Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH) and the Life-Cycle Hypothesis (LCH): First, households with higher income growth (2004–2016) exhibited lower consumption levels in the earlier period (2004–2007) and higher consumption in the later period (2013–2016). Second, households tend to consume a significant portion of transitory incomes immediately. Third, households without a pension plan show a marked decrease in consumption upon retirement.

Problem solving and proofs have always played a major role in mathematics. They are, in fact, the heart and soul of the discipline. The using of a number of different proof techniques for one specific problem can display the beauty, and elegance of mathematics. In this paper, we present one specific, interesting geometry problem, and present four different proofs for it, using methods, including using GeoGebra, that is dynamic geometry software (DGS) application, to make the initial conjecture. Encouraging students to derive results in such various ways will enhance their appreciation of mathematics, give them incentive to derive even more elegant solutions on their own, and provide them the opportunity to come up with some original insights on how proofs work. As a bonus, the problem we used, also let them know Ptolemy's theorem and the fourth theorem of the overlap of triangles, which are not included in the curriculum of some countries. The implication of our findings is that mathematics educators should be encouraged to introduce many such authentic multiple-proof problems into the teaching program. In addition, the effect of such exercises on students' mathematical understanding should be studied.

Rabbi Sacks’ approach to happiness can be understood through three key pathways: sacrificing for a cause, seeking inner peace, and building covenantal communities. Rabbi Sacks’ presentation highlights that no one has a monopoly on happiness and there is no single approach to achieve it but provides a framework by which to approach this most elusive of pursuits. Each of the three paths outlined, therefore, provides an effective way to find joy and, perhaps all three in combination lead to the achievement of a complete sense of happiness.

Background: Heart diseases are associated with an increased incidence of cancer independently of shared risk factors. The mechanism beyond this link is complex, unclear and limits our ability to develop effective therapies. We aimed to test the hypothesis that small cardiac extracellular vesicles (sEVs) contribute to the link between HF and cancer. Methods & Results: We used mouse models of heterotopic and orthotopic lung cancer and post-myocardial infarction (MI) heart failure (HF). sEVs were isolated by size exclusion chromatography. To determine the role of cardiac EVs in tumor growth, we focused on sEVs from cardiac mesenchymal stromal cells (cMSCs). cMSCs after MI secreted twice more sEVs, characterized with a unique proteome, compared with cMSCs from sham-MI ( Fig 1A ). cMSC-sEVs from post-MI HF harbored more tumor-promoting cytokines and microRNA (miR), such as periostin, osteopontin, IL-6, TNFα, galectin-3, and miR's 221 and 21. The pro-neoplastic effects of cMSC-sEVs on cancer cells were depended on cancer type, with a marked increase in proliferation and migration of lung and colon cancer cells but only a modest increase with more malignant triple-negative breast and melanoma cancer cells. Next, we inoculated lung cancer cells into mice and found that post-MI HF accelerated tumor growth. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of cMSC-sEVs from failing hearts accelerated tumor growth with and without systemic EV depletion ( Fig 1B ). Finally, we found that spironolactone mitigated the neoplastic effects of HF, attenuated tumor growth ( Fig 1C ), and reduced the number of cMSC-sEVs by 26%. Conclusions: We show, for the first time, that cardiac extracellular vesicles from post-MI failing heart harbor pro-neoplastic properties and promote tumor growth independently of other secreted factors. Spironolactone reduces the number of cardiac extracellular vesicles and the pro-neoplastic effects of post-MI heart failure.

We present a hierarchical architecture based on recurrent neural networks for predicting disaggregated inflation components of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). While the majority of existing research is focused on predicting headline inflation, many economic and financial institutions are interested in its partial disaggregated components. To this end, we developed the novel Hierarchical Recurrent Neural Network (HRNN) model, which utilizes information from higher levels in the CPI hierarchy to improve predictions at the more volatile lower levels. Based on a large dataset from the US CPI-U index, our evaluations indicate that the HRNN model significantly outperforms a vast array of well-known inflation prediction baselines. Our methodology and results provide additional forecasting measures and possibilities to policy and market makers on sectoral and component-specific price changes.

Psychological resilience, the ability to adapt to adversity, is theorized to rely on intact inhibitory control (IC) mechanisms, which underlie one’s ability to maintain goal-directed behavior by inhibiting prepotent responses. However, no study to date has explored daily fluctuations of IC performance in relation to resilience. Here, we examined the association between IC and mood measured daily in relation to psychological resilience in young adults in a stressful situation. Baseline resilience was obtained from 144 female and male soldiers during their basic combat training. Then, participants completed an ecological momentary assessment protocol, in which they reported their momentary mood and completed a short IC assessment twice/day for 2 weeks. A hierarchical linear modeling analysis revealed that psychological resilience moderated the relationship between momentary IC and momentary mood, such that better IC was associated with better mood only for those with higher, but not lower, self-reported psychological resilience at baseline. These results show that psychological resilience is manifested in the everyday association between IC and mood. Furthermore, they lend important support to cognitive models of resilience and may have significant contribution to our understanding of resilient behavior in real life. Trial Registration: MOH_2018-0-13_002451.

Background The Covid-19 pandemic hit Israel in February 2020. In response to the pandemic, the government has imposed preventive measures to reduce the spreading of the virus, including lockdowns and restrictions that have severely undermined the normal course of life. Methods The social cost of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020–2021 is the sum of the direct and indirect costs and monetary values of the welfare loss that the pandemic has caused in various areas of life. We identified seven life/cost domains as follows: loss of GDP, fiscal cost, labor market, health, education, domestic violence and transportation. The cost of the pandemic includes components measured in monetary values (such as loss of GDP or government expenditure) and components caused by welfare loss (such as mortality, deterioration of mental health, or obesity) expressed as years of life or quality adjusted life years (QALYs) lost. The monetary value of a lost year of life or QALY adopted in this work is, according to the recommendation of the World Health Organization, three times GDP per capita (NIS 466,311 in 2019). The impact of the pandemic in the various domains was calculated by comparing the actual situation in 2020–2021 to the situation that was expected before the pandemic. Results The total cost of the Covid pandemic in Israel in 2020–2021 amounted to about NIS 783 billion, or 55% of GDP in 2019. This cost amounts to an average cost of about NIS 292,000 per Israeli household. The area most severely affected is health (33% of GDP), and most of the cost was caused by the increase in anxiety and depression levels. The labor market returned to normal quite rapidly, so no long-term unemployment costs were identified. Conclusions It is likely that the cost we estimated is an underestimation. Since we have not been able to locate similar works done in other countries, we performed a comparison with OECD countries in terms of the negative impact on GDP, loss of years of life and loss of school days. It shows that Israel has done better than the OECD average.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is associated with an increased incidence of cancer independently of shared risk factors. The mechanism behind this link is complex and not entirely clear. We aimed to test the hypothesis that cardiac extracellular vesicles (cEVs) contribute to the link between HF and cancer. Methods & Results: We used a mouse model of heterotopic lung cancer and post-myocardial infarction (MI) HF. To determine the role of cEVs in tumor growth, we focused on cardiac mesenchymal stromal cells (cMSCs) derived EVs, isolated by size exclusion chromatography. cMSCs after MI secreted twice more EVs, characterized with unique proteome, compared to cMSCs from sham-MI ( Fig A, B ). cMSC-EVs from HF harbored more tumor trophic cytokines and microRNA (miR), such as Periostin, Osteopontin, IL-6, TNFα, miR 221, and miR 21. Next, lung cancer cells were inoculated into mice. While HF accelerated tumor growth, EV depletion by GW4869 attenuated this effect. We found that labeled cMSC-EVs targeted lung cancer tumors, and adoptive transfer of cMSC-EVs from failing hearts accelerated tumor growth with and without systemic EV depletion ( Fig C, D ). Finally, we found that spironolactone, a renin-angiotensin-aldosterone inhibitor, mitigated the neoplastic effects of HF, attenuated tumor growth ( Fig E ), and reduced the secretion of cMSC-EVs by 26%. Conclusions: Our results provide new insight into the link between heart failure and cancer. We show, for the first time, that cardiac extracellular vesicles promote tumor growth independently of other secreted factors. Moreover, spironolactone reduces the number of cardiac extracellular vesicles and the neoplastic effects of heart failure.

We use text-mining techniques to measure the accessibility and quality of information within the texts of interest rate announcements published by the Bank of Israel over the past decade. We find that comprehension of interest rate announcements published by the Bank of Israel requires fewer years of education than interest rate announcements published by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. In addition, we show that the sentiment within these announcements is aligned with economic fluctuations. We also find that textual uncertainty is correlated with the volatility of the domestic financial market.

Double machine learning (DML) has become an increasingly popular tool for automated variable selection in high-dimensional settings. Even though the ability to deal with a large number of potential covariates can render selection-on-observables assumptions more plausible, there is at the same time a growing risk that endogenous variables are included, which would lead to the violation of conditional independence. This article demonstrates that DML is very sensitive to the inclusion of only a few “bad controls” in the covariate space. The resulting bias varies with the nature of the theoretical causal model, which raises concerns about the feasibility of selecting control variables in a data-driven way.

Background and objectives: Passive immunization by the infusion of convalescent plasma (CP) obtained from patients who have recently recovered from COVID-19, thus having antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is a potential strategy to reduce the severity of illness. A high prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies (APLA) in patients with COVID-19 has been reported during the pandemic, raising a concern whether the use of CP could increase the risk of thrombosis in transfused patients. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of APLA in COVID-19 CP (CCP) in order to assess the potential prothrombotic influence of transfused CCP to COVID-19 patients. Materials and methods: We studied the prevalence of APLA in 122 CCP samples collected from healthy donors who recovered from mild-COVID-19 at two time periods: September 2020-January 2021 (defined as 'early period' samples) and April-May 2021 (defined as 'late period' samples). Thirty-four healthy subjects unexposed to COVID-19 were used as controls. Results: APLA were present in 7 of 122 (6%) CCP samples. One donor had anti-β2-glycoprotein 1(anti-β2GP1) IgG, one had anti-β2GP1 IgM and five had lupus anticoagulant (LAC) using silica clotting time (SCT), all in 'late period' donors. In the control group, one subject had anti-β2GP1 IgG, two had LAC using dilute Russell viper venom time (dRVVT) and four had LAC SCT (both LAC SCT and LAC dRVVT in one subject). Conclusion: The low prevalence of APLA in CCP donors reassures the safety of CCP administration to patients with severe COVID-19.

Introduction: Western diet fructose content is a neglected nutrition component, with significant devastating metabolic effects like metabolic syndrome (MeS) and obesity. The data suggest that Food-induced thermogenesis is a contributing factor for regulating body weight. Carbohydrate Responsive Element Binding Protein-beta (ChREBPβ) is recognized now as the regulator of fructose metabolism. Brown adipose tissue (AT) which plays essential role as a thermoregulatory organ, is recognized now also as an endocrine tissue that participates in glucose and lipids metabolism. ChREBP expression is associated with activating of BAT and improve metabolic status. On the other hand, increased ChREBPβ seems to have a deleterious metabolic effect on brown AT. Methods: Sprague-Dawley male rats, 8 weeks old were fed High Fructose Diet (HFRD) or match regular chow for 6 weeks (n=8). Body weight (BW) and precise food intake were measured weekly. Brown (peri-aortic and interscapular, PA and IS respectively) and white (mesenteric) AT were collected for further molecular studies. Results: HFrD fed rats gain significantly less weight than the control group (from 236±2 to 397±8 vs. 233±2 to 430±9 gr. P<0.05) despite eating an equal food amount (28±1vs.29±1.5 g/rat/week). The expression of uncoupling 1 (UCP1) mRNA, a BAT activation marker, was significantly higher in BAT than in WAT. Fructose consumption increased UCP1 BAT expression compared to regular chow. However, the expression of ChREBP and ChREBPβ in BAT was significantly lower in HFrD fed rats. Conclusions: In the HFrD rat model of MeS, fructose consumption leads to lesser weight gain for the same caloric intake. This BW difference is accompanied by the activation of BAT in the HFrD group. This paradoxical effect may be regulated by decreased ChREBP/ChREBPβ expression in response to fructose. No disclosure This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.