Economic development of the municipalities (outside capital) is one of the key sustainable development challenges in Georgia. The capital city of Tbilisi, while accounting for nearly 1/3 of the country’s population generates 53% of GDP and keeps expanding, whereas the municipalities, with few exceptions, are losing population and suffering from high incidence of poverty, unemployment, and slow and weak economic development.

Firms differ systematically by size, and these differences shape how aggregate shocks propagate through the corporate sector. Large and small firms vary in their production technologies, cost structures, financing options, and ability to absorb adverse shocks. These differences become particularly important during periods of macroeconomic stress, when constraints on liquidity, access to finance, and cost flexibility can translate into sharply divergent performance outcomes.

Remittances constitute one of the most important external income sources for Georgian households, accounting for more than 10 percent of GDP in recent years. Large-scale emigration to countries such as Russia, Italy, Greece, Germany, and the United States has made remittance inflows a central component of household livelihoods, particularly for vulnerable and lower-income groups.

The Eastern Partnership Road Safety Observatory (EaP RSO) seeks to strengthen evidence-based road safety policymaking by improving the availability, comparability, and analysis of crash data across the region. As part of this effort, EaP RSO has prepared a focused report on Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova, summarizing road crash fatalities and injuries between 2021 and 2023.

Innovation-driven growth has long been understood as a restless, uneven process. In the Schumpeterian tradition – captured formally by Aghion and Howitt’s model of creative destruction – economies progress when new, higher-quality technologies displace older ones, pushing the productivity frontier outward.

This note sets out a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the socio-economic and fiscal impacts of road maintenance in Georgia. Moving beyond a purely technical cost perspective, it frames maintenance as a strategic investment that drives regional development, productivity, and fiscal sustainability.