Currently I am the Rector of the College as well as a professor at the department of economics and management.
I finished my1st and 2nd degree in the Hebrew university and Ph.D. at the university of Minnesota.
I served as the dean of the faculty of social sciences and humanities between 2013 - 2018.
Besides teaching and doing research, I am also involved in public consultation on my research issues.
My main field of research is environmental economics. Within this field I am doing Cost-Benefit-Analysis of nature conservation based on non-market valuation. Topics such as the economics of endangered species, open spaces and ecological services are in the focus of my current research. Besides that, I deal also with water resources economics and recently (2013) edited a book (Springer publishing) on Water Policy in Israel. On January 2020 I published (with Chanoch Friedman) the first book on environmental economics in Hebrew (Pardes pblishing).
Selected publication (for a full list look at my CV of Google Scholar): Becker, N. (1995). Value of moving from central planning to a market system: lessons from the Israeli water sector. Agricultural Economics, 12(1), 11-21. Becker, N. Naomi Zeitouni & Mordechai Shechter(1996). Reallocating water resources in the Middle East through market mechanisms. International journal of water resources development, 12(1), 17-32. Becker, N., & Easter, K. W. (1999). Conflict and cooperation in managing international water resources such as the Great Lakes. Land Economics, 233-245. Becker, N., & Freeman, S. (2009). The economic value of old growth trees in Israel. Forest Policy and Economics, 11(8), 608-615. Abramson, A., Becker, N., Garb, Y., & Lazarovitch, N. (2011). Willingness to pay, borrow, and work for rural water service improvements in developing countries. Water Resources Research, 47(11). Friedman, C., Becker, N., & Erell, E. (2014). Energy retrofit of residential building envelopes in Israel: A cost-benefit analysis. Energy, 77, 183-193.
See CV and Google scholar citation index below https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6jVm1j8AAAAJ&hl=iw
About 90 min. discussion with Lee Reshef about nature conservation and economics. https://www.google.com/search?q=nir+becker&rlz=1C1GCEA_enIL886IL886&sxsrf=ALeKk02LxNJzVS7QwETfCaHDsKN1SbXX1g:1606817860886&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMhMT-xqztAhWioVwKHWoMCjkQ_AUoA3oECAQQBQ&biw=1280&bih=610
Explaining the reasons for the 2009 Nobel prize in economics (for 2009): watch here
Speaking about aquaculture and economics: watch here
Link to my Google Scholar account
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=6jVm1j8AAAAJ
Link to my Research Gate account