It is a moment the entire ISET community has been eagerly waiting for the last 6 years, ever since its first class graduated in 2008. Asya Shchepetova, the most Georgian Ukrainian economist, has just defended her doctoral dissertation and received an economics Ph.D. degree from the Toulouse School of Economics in France, a global leader in the field of industrial organization and competition policy. We congratulate Asya for this wonderful achievement and wish her a great career as a competition policy expert, researcher, and teacher.

Asya came to ISET in 2006, having studied business administration in Ukraine.

Back then ISET was a brand new institution, and studying at the school was pretty much like building the boat and sailing it at the same time.

Despite having no math or economics background, Asya graduated with flying colors and was the Salutatorian of the Class of 2008; not knowing anybody in Georgia upon landing in Tbilisi, by the time she graduated Asya was a loved and respected member of a large South Caucasus tribe.

Upon the advice of ISET professors and friends, Asya decided to continue her development as an economist and received a full scholarship to continue her studies in the Ph.D. program at the Toulouse School of Economics in France.

Six years later, Asya Shchepetova, Ph.D., wrote in an acknowledgment note: “I am sincerely grateful to all the members of ISET; in particular, to Eric Livny and Randy Filer for the work they do for their students during and after the life in ISET. For myself, ISET provided a supplementary grant that allowed me to accomplish my experimental study that became a Chapter 1 of this Thesis; thank you for this continued support.”

Congratulations, our dear Asya!

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32 ISET graduates are currently enrolled in economics Ph.D. programs in the United States and Western Europe, all with full university scholarships. ISET graduates can currently be found at NYU, Stanford, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Warwick, McGill, and other universities. Asya is the first ISET graduate to receive prestigious Ph.D. degrees, but definitely not the last.