The ISET team conducted an online survey that began with the following question: if you could choose where to be born, what country would you pick? We intentionally formulated the question in this way, which is very different from asking “where would you like to travel or to migrate?” This formulation was meant to allow us to look into characteristics of countries to determine which ones individuals find interesting and appealing if a veil of ignorance is added about their initial standing in the society (e.g. in family and/or social class status at birth).

On April 6, ISET hosted a seminary by World Bank Senior Director on Gender Ms. Caren Grown, on Gender Equality as a Smart Development Policy in Georgia. Ms. Caren Grown was invited as part of the anti-corruption course jointly organized by ISET and the NHH (the Norwegian School of Economics).

ISET is pleased to announce that a paper by Professor Noberto Pignatti entitled “Encouraging Women's Labour Force Participation in Transition Countries”, has been published as part of the IZA World of Labour series, an international platform that produces evidence-based advice for policymaking.

Already in ancient times, philosophers debated the nature of happiness and the recipes for a happy and fulfilling life. Today this question is also hotly debated by scientists and politicians, who are particularly interested in what can be done to increase the happiness of their voters (and citizens, more generally). Happiness has become so important nowadays that four countries: Bhutan, Ecuador, UAE, and Venezuela went so far as to employ ministers of happiness!

For over three and a half years, the ISET Policy Institute has been tracking the trends in the Georgian consumer sentiments. Every month a team of callers dial randomly generated telephone numbers to interview around 330 people from all over Georgia. The interviewer first asks the basic questions about the respondent’s age, level of education, place of residence, and then follows up with questions about the current financial situation of the household and the person’s expectations about the future economic situation in the country.