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.

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.

Georgia's post-pandemic recovery has been marked by strong macroeconomic performance, with real GDP surpassing pre-pandemic trends and labor market indicators showing notable improvement. However, this research note examines whether this recovery reflects genuine structural transformation or masks deeper challenges of labor market polarization.

In 2025, President Donald Trump reintroduced a sweeping tariff policy as a central element of his economic agenda. Framed as a “universal baseline tariff,” the new measures impose a 10% duty on all imports and introduce even higher reciprocal tariffs on countries with large trade surpluses with the United States. These policies mark a continuation and an escalation of Trump’s earlier protectionist approach during his first term.

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 50% 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.