Subscribe
Logo

ISET Economist Blog

What Georgia Can Teach the World
Thursday, 17 May, 2012

A new discussion paper by Jeffrey Frankel,  via Economic Logic:

The large economies have each, in sequence, offered "models" that once seemed attractive to others but that eventually gave way to disillusionment. Small countries may have some answers. They are often better able to experiment with innovative policies and institutions and some of the results are worthy of emulation. This article gives an array of examples. Some of them come from small advanced countries: New Zealand's Inflation Targeting, Estonia's flat tax, Switzerland's debt brake, Ireland's FDI policy, Canada's banking structure, Sweden's Nordic model, and the Netherlands' labor market reforms. Some examples come from countries that were considered "developing" 40 years ago but have since industrialized. Korea stands for education; among Singapore's innovative policies were forced saving and traffic congestion pricing; Costa Rica and Mauritius outperformed their respective regions by, among other policies, foreswearing standing armies; and Mexico experimented successfully with the original Conditional Cash Transfers. A final set of examples come from countries that export mineral and agricultural commodities, historically vulnerable to the "resource curse," but that have learned how to avoid the pitfalls: Chile's structural budget rules, Mexico's oil option hedging, and Botswana's Pula Fund.

There is certainly no dearth of innovative policies and institutions in Georgia, from fighting corruption by firing the entire traffic police force to public service halls. Some of the reforms and institutions were inspired by other countries, but others were not. Which Georgian reform experiments are worth to be emulated by other countries? Which Georgian reform experiments are scalable and of relevance to larger countries?

The views and analysis in this article belong solely to the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the international School of Economics at TSU (ISET) or ISET Policty Institute.
Subscribe