Biography

Sami Miaari earned his Ph.D. and M.A degrees in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; he also got his B.s.c. in Mathematics and Economics from the same University. In addition, he worked as academic consultant to Arab students at the Hebrew University.
The aim of his research is to contribute to the literature on the economic costs of political instability by measuring the effect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the labor market. The economic costs of political conflict have long been subjects of great interest to economists. The large number of papers on this subject offers ample empirical evidence that political instability has significant economic consequences. However, most of the leading studies tend to focus on the implications of political instability for macroeconomic variables such as savings, investment, and growth rates; while relatively few papers analyze the effects of conflict on individual outcomes in particular markets, such as the labor market.
His current research measures the short term affects of the West Bank Barrier on the Palestinian Labour Market. In his Ph.D. dissertation, Sami examined the Labour Market Cost of Conflict. He measured the implications of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for Palestinian employment and earnings; and analyzed the effect of conflict during the second Intifada on the employment of Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. Moreover, he analyzed the wage differentials between the public and the private sectors in the West Bank and Gaza strip with regard to the political instability.
During his PhD period he has also worked on a project concerning The Struggle for Palestinian Hearts and Minds: Violence and Public Opinion in the Second Intifada.