ISET Economist Blog

28 February 2025

Tamar Sulukhia, Davit Keshelava

Is Georgia facing the risk of accelerated brain drain

Today Georgia is facing an increasing risk of brain drain. In recent years, Georgia has been experiencing a brain drain, with an increasing number of skilled professionals, young workers, and students leaving the country in search of better economic opportunities and stability. Since independence, the outmigration of Georgians has been mostly driven by economic factors – jobs, higher wages, better working conditions, and career advancement opportunities abroad.

22 May 2024

Giorgi Papava, Davit Keshelava, Tornike Surguladze

ECONOMIC POLICY ALERT: Amendments to the Law of Georgia on Funded Pensions

The ISET Policy Institute has been closely monitoring and assessing the progress of pension reform for years. Respectively, we have reviewed the proposed changes and identified substantial risks for the effective organizational structure of the pension fund and the welfare of over 1.5 million participating citizens.

18 December 2023

Giorgi Nebulishvili, Davit Keshelava

Unlocking opportunities: the economic benefits of EU candidate status for Georgia

As Georgia advances on its path toward European Union (EU) candidacy, the anticipated economic benefits, increased foreign investment, and alignment with European standards present a promising trajectory, worthy of further attention within the following article. The granting of European Union candidate status is a significant political signal, one which represents an initial step towards acknowledging that a candidate country is on the path towards eventual EU membership.

05 April 2021

Yaroslava Babych, Giorgi Mzhavanadze, Davit Keshelava

A Georgian Woman’s Burden: How Pandemic Affected Distribution of Household Work Between Men and Women, And Why It Matters

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives and perceptions in many important ways: the value we put on face-to-face interactions, the importance of personal space, communication with loved ones, and much more. Some of these perceptions and social changes may actually outlive the pandemic.

19 October 2020

Yaroslava Babych, Davit Keshelava

Sorry, You're Fired Due to COVID! Has COVID-19 Widened Gender Gap?

When the Georgian unemployment statistics for Quarter 2 (April, May, June) of 2020 came out, no one was surprised to see that the national unemployment rate, which had been falling steadily over the previous quarters, and even years, suddenly increased by 0.9 percentage points relative to the same quarter of 2019 (more precisely from 11.4% in Q2 2019 to 12.3% in Q2 2020). Perhaps we were more surprised by the fact that the unemployment rate did not go up more drastically in the midst of a strict lockdown, various travel restrictions, and quarantine measures.

17 March 2020

Yaroslava Babych, Davit Keshelava, Giorgi Mzhavanadze

It’s Not Who You Trade With – It’s Who You Produce With: Measuring Georgia’s Integration into Global and Regional Value Chains

We live in a world where the production of a single good typically involves manufacturing inputs from many different countries around the globe. For example, a typical iPhone production takes place in as many as 7 countries, including the USA, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and even Switzerland. This is what is known to economists as global value chains (GVC). The emergence of GVC more than two decades ago transformed the way economists think about countries’ comparative advantage and specialization in production.

ISET Economist Blog

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