ISET Professor Norberto Pignatti recently attended the international IZA/Volkswagen Foundation Workshop: Preferences, Personality Traits, and the Labor Market held in Bertinoro (Italy) on the 6th and 7th of October. Professor Pignatti was invited to present his research about the role of risk preferences in labor market choices in the Georgian labor market.

Just recently, a rare occurrence made the headlines in Georgia: Moody’s Investors Service upgraded the government of Georgia’s local and foreign currency issuer ratings first time in seven years, to Ba2 from Ba3, with commentary that the outlook remains stable. This news was met with great excitement, but was soon overshadowed by the unfortunate news of Georgia’s downgrade on the Global Competitiveness Indicators, without fully appreciating or understanding the significance of the Moody's upgrade.

On October 3, 2017, ISET Policy Institute Executive Director Lasha Labadze made a presentation at the conference "Modern Educational Programs to Support Agribusiness Development,” organized by East European University within the International Scientific Festival, planned by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.

On 26 September, the World Economic Forum published The Global Competitiveness Report 2017–2018. The full report contains detailed profiles and rankings for 137 countries based on 2016 data.

In the summer of 2017, Georgia experienced an unusually high number of forest fires across the entire country. 35 forest fires were recorded just in August (official data reporting the size of area burned by these fires is not yet available). In almost all regions of the country, several fires were reported. Among them, the conflagration in the Borjomi gorge had the most dramatic consequences: it lasted for seven days (20-27 August), and more than 100 hectares of forest were destroyed. Many people claim that these cannot be all accidental events.