Mr. Jacob Yaron
Senior Rural Finance Advisor
World Bank

Jacob Yaron graduated from the Hebrew University at Jerusalem. He joined the World Bank in 1977 and retired in 2001 after working in the last years as the Bank Senior Rural Financial Adviser. He introduced the methodology of the Subsidy Dependence Index (SDI) as a primary criteria to assess the cost-effectiveness of interventions in development finance; he led the group that wrote the World Bank 's monograph #14, "Rural Finance: Issues, Design and Best Practices;" he coauthored the book Development Finance Institutions: Measuring Their Subsidies. He is the author of many articles on the subject of development finance, promotion of rural financial markets and related subjects.