Avi Simhon was born in
Kadima. His paternal ancestors were
Moroccan Jews who made
Aliyah in 1840 and founded
Neve Tzedek. His grandfather, Yehoshua Simhon, was a
Russian-born Jew who was one of the founders of Kadima and the first chairman of the settlement. Simhon received his BA in economics and mathematics from the
Hebrew University in 1984, a master's degree in economics in 1986 and a doctorate from the
University of Minnesota in 1992. His doctoral advisors were Nobel Prize laureate in economics
Edward Prescott and professor
Neil Wallace. In addition, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University's Economics Department in 1994. He teaches economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1994. In 2010 he was appointed economic advisor to Finance Minister
Yuval Steinitz instead of professor Omer Moav. Avi Simhon was a member of the Committee for Economic and Social Change (the
Trachtenberg Committee) and of the Committee for the Examination of Poverty Indices in Israel (the
Itzhaki Committee). Simhon is an expert on
macroeconomics and the Israeli economy. He also has an expertise in corruption in the fields of labour sciences. He was appointed chairman of the National Economic Council in December 2015. and served until 2021. he is married, has three children and lives in Jerusalem. In October 2012, Simhon announced his intention to run in the
Likud primaries for the Knesset. He was placed in the 53rd place on the
Likud Yisrael Beiteinu Knesset list. He ran in the Likud primaries in 2022 and was placed in the 53rd place a second time. == Controversies ==