Dr. Zoya Nissanov

Research Associate, Socioeconomic Mobility Team

Socioeconomic mobility

Research Associate at the Socioeconomic Mobility Team, Myers-JDC-Brookdale (MJB), Israel’s leading center for applied social research.

Dr. Zoya Nissanov has been employed at MJB since 2025. Her main research area is socioeconomic mobility. Zoya has extensive experience in quantitative empirical research, with several publications in the international scientific literature, in the social sciences. In addition to her  focus on mobility, Zoya specializes in the economics of poverty and inequality.

Prior to joining MJB, Zoya served as an advisor to the National Statistician at the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Zoya holds a BA in sociology and political science, and an MA and PhD in economics – all from Bar-Ilan University.

She can be contacted by email at: [email protected]

Socioeconomic mobility

Socioeconomic Mobility in Israel: A Literature Review
Dr. Oren Heller, Geffen Ben David, Dr. Zoya Nissanov, , Prof. Michal Grinstein-Weiss
2025

This literature review aims to map current knowledge on intergenerational mobility. It serves as an introduction to two forthcoming research reports that seek to bridge the gaps in current knowledge. The first report, “Socioeconomic Mobility in Israel: At What Stage Do Gaps Emerge Between Groups?”, focuses on identifying dynamic turning points along the life of individuals from different socio-economic groups. The second report, “A Predictive Model for Economic Mobility,” presents an integrative statistical model for assessing mobility prospects. Together, the two studies aim to provide a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the mobility processes in Israel and to offer a knowledge-based foundation for policies that promote equality of opportunity.

Journal Articles

Apouey, B., Nissanov, Z., & Silber, J. (2023). Ordinal variables and the measurement of upward and downward intergenerational educational mobility in European countries. Review of Income and Wealth, 69(3), 776–800. https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12593

Nissanov, Z. (2021). Is an increase in oil prices good for individuals in oil-producing countries? Post-Communist Economies, 33(5), 581–586. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631377.2021.1874205

Franck, R., & Nissanov, Z. (2020). The impact of terror on trust, institutions and redistribution. Israel Affairs, 26(6), 960–968. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2020.1853138

Nissanov, Z. (2019). Israeli political attitudes and income in the 2006–2015 elections. Israel Affairs, 25(4), 740–753. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2019.1634390

Nissanov, Z. (2018). Economic classes in Israel, 2002–2014. The Economic Quarterly, 62(3–4), 55–72. [In Hebrew]

Nissanov, Z. (2017). Income mobility and the middle class in Russia, 1995–2007. Post-Communist Economies, 29(2), 250–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631377.2016.1267968

Nissanov, Z., & Pittau, M. G. (2016). Measuring changes in the Russian middle class between 1992 and 2008: A nonparametric distributional analysis. Empirical Economics, 50(2), 503–530. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-015-1027-6

Nissanov, Z., & Silber, J. (2011). On some extensions of the concept of growth incidence curves. Applied Economics Letters, 18(5), 479–483. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851003761853

Nissanov, Z., & Silber, J. (2009). On pro-poor growth and the measurement of convergence. Economics Letters, 105, 270–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2009.09.002

Books and Reports

Nissanov, Z. (2017). Economic growth and the middle class in an economy in transition: The case of Russia. Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being. Springer International Publishing.

Nisanov, Z. (2014). The middle class in Israel. Policy Paper No. 2014.04. Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel. https://www.taubcenter.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/themiddleclassinisrael.pdf

Books chapters

Chakravarty, S. R., Chattopadhyay, N., Deutsch, J., Nissanov, Z., & Silber, J. (2019). Reference groups and the poverty line: An axiomatic approach with an empirical illustration. In S. R. Chakravarty (Ed.), Poverty, social exclusion and stochastic dominance (pp. 39–61). Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Nissanov, Z., Poggi, A., & Silber, J. (2010). Measuring bi-polarization and polarization: A survey. In J. Deutsch & J. Silber (Eds.), The measurement of individual well-being and group inequalities: Essays in memory of Z. M. Berrebi (pp. 49–87). Routledge Economics, Taylor and Francis Group.

Conference Papers

Nissanov, Z. (2024). Setting priorities and defining criteria for developing new SPPIs in Israel. Presented at the 38th Meeting of the Voorburg Group on Services Statistics, Tel Aviv. The Voorburg Group on Services Statistics.