Graph 1 shows the density of Georgian farmers’ revenues received from selling their produce, generated from the sample of 3,000 Georgian rural households. (For the motivation and methodology of our study, please refer to the article that was published here last week. It is also available online on the ISET Economist Blog: “Dumb Farmers Do Not Grow Big Potatoes”, by Florian Biermann and Ruediger Heining).

In early February 2016, ISET opened its doors to a group of 7 economics students and faculty from one of Europe’s top schools of business and economics, HEC at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Just like Duddy Kravitz, Georgian men (and women) appear to be reluctant to part with their parcels of land, however small and unproductive. Whatever the reason, Georgia sees almost no structural change out of agriculture, and, as a result, very low productivity and income growth for the poorest strata of its population. As of today, employment (or, rather, under-employment) in agriculture is a staggering 45% of Georgia’s total labor force.

On Monday, February 15th, ISET and the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) jointly organized a workshop on economic theory and related fields. The workshop took place in the conference hall at ISET from the afternoon until the late evening, interrupted only by various coffee breaks, which gave the attending students from ISET and HEC Lausanne the opportunity to connect with the presenters, build up their professional networks, and discuss frontier research in economics.

Ancient Greeks’ fascination with Georgia was not limited to the Golden Fleece. Legend has it that ‘Georgia’ comes from the Greek γεωργός (Georgios), reflecting the advanced land plowing practices of Georgian tribes, which distinguished them from their nomadic and yet unsettled neighbors. The Georgians (Colchians and Iberians, to be more precise) must have really made a formidable impression on the Argonauts to deserve such recognition.