Elise S. Brezis is Professor of Economics at Bar-Ilan University. She is the head of the Azrieli Center for Economic Policy in Israel, and the head of the Israel Macroeconomic Forum.

She was the head of the Aharon Meir Research Center for Banking. She served as President of the Israeli Association for European Studies, on the boards of private sector investment firms, and is a past member of the Endowment Investment Board of Bar-Ilan University. She consulted for the Israel Council of Higher Education, the Manufacturers Association of Israel, and the Ministry of Science. Prof. Brezis serves as an expert witness in judicial cases and has created economic models involving compensatory labor litigation.

Prof. Brezis holds a PhD in Economics from MIT (USA) specializing in the field of international economics and economic growth. Her research interests cover a range of topics related to macroeconomics, economic development, and the impact of R&D and higher education on economic growth.

She also works in the field of international economics and political economy. In the field of economic growth, she has developed a theory, coined leapfrogging with Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman. In the field of institutions and governance, she has developed the notion of bureaucratic capital related to the practice of the revolving door. For this research, Prof. Brezis has been awarded the 2020 Elinor Ostrom prize.

Prof. Brezis was invited as visiting professor to teach in many universities, including College de France, Rutgers University, Shanghai CEIBS, Nanjing University, and KNU in South Korea.

She has published articles in leading journals such as the American Economic Review and the European Economic Review. She is on the editorial board of Cliometrica, the Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History.