that facilitates the recruitment and maintenance of high - quality staff. uwi has been a strong supporter of the ccms but the university may also have to do more if we are to maintain a high quality center for monetary research. and finally, the time may have come when we need to look to the private financial community - the banks, the insurance companies and so on - to contribute to the financing of the ccms, if even for paid research. let ’ s face it, we all stand to benefit from the work that could emanate from a well - staffed, wellresourced and high quality regional center for monetary and financial studies. with these few words, mr. chairman, i would like to wish all the participants a most stimulating and successful conference.

karnit flug : policy dilemmas and the role of the central bank in advising government remarks by dr karnit flug, governor of the bank of israel, at the farewell conference marking the end of her term, jerusalem, 4 november 2018. * * * this conference touched upon two areas that are at the center of the boi responsibilities : one which is unique among central banks and that is the governor of the boi being the economic advisor to the government. the second is the core business of central banks, namely monetary policy making. although the boi has many other areas of responsibility, i would like to offer a few reflections on each of those two very important areas. in the first part of this conference, we have seen a sample of two research projects conducted by researchers from our research department, and we have heard laurence boone, the chief economist of the oecd covering policy issues related to inclusive growth. the two research projects give a glimpse of the type of research that tackles specific policy issues ; in this case public housing policies and eitc, or income support for the working poor. the work performed at the oecd on inclusive growth has touched upon important policy dilemmas and tradeoffs, and provides some insights on what policies could be pursued in the quest for inclusive growth : the need to enhance education and promote life - long learning and acquisition of skills ; enhancing access to affordable housing ; and ensuring adaptation and diffusion of technologies across the board – in particular for small and young firms. these are lessens that we, as the economic advisors to the government have grappled with over the years : some research projects conducted by boi researchers may focus on a very specific policy question and directly help design a better policy. others are of a more basic nature and provide a better understanding of the interaction between relevant variables ; while yet others estimate and quantify these relationships or help assess the speed or extent to which a policy action may impact on relevant variables. what is common to all of this work is that it lays the foundations, and builds the infrastructure, to a more informed policymaking and thus helps design better policies. a natural question that arises in this respect is why at the central bank? should the economic advisor to the government be the governor of the central bank? this question was debated within the bank of israel, among some of the people sitting here today. while we were discussing the new bank of israel law, stan was initially of the view that the role of