ISET Economist Blog

02 July 2024

Sopha Gujabidze, Tamar Sulukhia

Policy panel: current economic challenges and opportunities in Georgia

The Policy Panel: Current Economic Challenges and Opportunities in Georgia was sponsored and organized by ISET Policy Institute as part of the 1st International Conference of the Georgian Economic Association on July 2, 2024, at Stamba.

12 April 2021

Tamar Sulukhia

Inflation of Trust

World economies hampered by the pandemic; countries facing public healthcare crises, with millions killed by COVID-19; thousands of cities under lockdown; social distancing and transformed social practices; countless institutions functioning online; the youth spending endless days and nights in front of computer screens; and, globally, over a year of online education. This is the reality in many countries around the world, including Georgia, in the spring of 2021.

07 September 2020

Tamar Sulukhia

New Old Chavchavadze Avenue – Putting the Horse Ahead of the Cart?

One issue on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days in Tbilisi—along with the August holidays and the risks of COVID-19—is the newly-rehabilitated Chavchavadze Avenue, which was recently reopened to traffic. Why is this issue so “popular”?

10 June 2020

Tamta Maridashvili

Could the Government Act as Coordinator?

In Avchala, in the middle of nowhere, you might be surprised to find the busy “Craftsmen’s City” or “Khelosnebis Kalaki” as it is called in Georgian. It is built on a 4-ha plot where there used to be a large carpet manufacturing plant in Soviet times, which vanished with the Soviet Union and turned into a concrete carcass surrounded by a swamp.

04 September 2017

Eric Livny

Crime and Punishment. The Georgian Version

Driving back home after a two-week family vacation in Turkey, a horrific surprise awaited us at the border-crossing in Vale (near Akhaltsikhe). We arrived just before midnight on Saturday, August 26, 2017. What we knew to be a very efficient procedure lasted much longer than the expected 2-3 minutes.

06 March 2017

Levan Pavlenishvili, Norberto Pignatti

Economic Freedom (Act): Do We Need It or Not?

The so-called “Economic Freedom Act” (EFA), which has been a matter of public discussion in recent weeks, refers to two pieces of legislation: (i) a Constitutional amendment from 2010, which requires a referendum for introducing new taxes or increasing the tax rate, and (ii) the Law on Economic Freedom (2011), in force since 2013, setting a number of additional restrictions to government fiscal policy (Table 1).

ISET Economist Blog

A blog about economics in the South Caucasus financed within the institutional grant by the Government of Sweden.