ISET continues its Distinguished Professors Lecture Series in cooperation with Tbilisi State University (TSU). On Monday, June 1st, in this installment of the lecture series, ISET hosted Alexander Shengelaya, professor of TSU and University of Zurich. Prof. Shengelaya delivered a lecture titled “Amazing World of Superconductivity” accompanied by the actual experiment about superconductivity.

Some twenty five year later, the world is once again rife with “contradictions” (the elimination of which is key to understanding Fukuyama’s end-of-history Hegelian thinking). These contradictions are most evident in the ever intensifying migration debates in Europe and the US, renewed trade wars, geopolitical rivalries and religious conflicts.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is critical to every developing county, and Georgia is no exception in this regard. Georgia wants to grow out of poverty and catch up with the economically more developed regions of the world – for this to happen, foreign resources are needed, in particular, if the domestic savings rate is as low as in Georgia.

Starting from 2005, Georgia saw a rapid decline in tertiary gross enrollment. This project outlines the potential reasons behind decreasing enrollment rates and discusses the role of institutional changes, wages, returns to education, external and international migration, and employment patterns.

According to the latest GEOSTAT figures, merchandize exports from Georgia decreased by 1.63% between 2013 and 2014. This is certainly not great news for the country, but does it imply that Georgian goods have become less competitive on the world market? Recent trade data suggest that this is not necessarily the case.