27
June
2016
For the likes of Boris Johnson, currently UK’s most popular politician and a leading figure of the Brexit revolt, “The European Union has become too remote, too opaque and not accountable enough to the people it is meant to serve.” But how about the UK itself? How close are 10 Downing Street or Westminster to the working-class folks of England’s industrial north? How representative is Britain’s Eton-educated ‘political class’ of the people they are meant to serve?
27
June
2016
In May 2016, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri declined to 3.08 GEL, which is 2.7% lower compared to April 2016, but 7% higher compared to May 2015. Come the summer season, tourism provides a major boost to the demand for Georgian products (and their prices).
27
June
2016
The relevance of agriculture in formal employment dropped in many European, Central, and East Asian countries over the previous decades. The mutually reinforcing and interdependent processes of development outside the agricultural sector, along with significant urbanization, have resulted in new dynamics and diversity in the rural labor landscape. Remittances, as the link between urban and international migrants and their original households, have gained importance in sustaining rural livelihoods, especially in poorer countries and regions.
25
June
2016
People who decide to leave their country and test their luck elsewhere are usually no random sample of a population. In his 1987 paper “Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants” (American Economic Review 77, pp. 531-553), Harvard Political Scientist George J. Borjas discusses the so-called self-selection of migrants. As of 1987, the standard view among migration economists was that migrants, at least those who came to the United States, belonged to the “upper tails” of the income distributions in their home countries.
22
June
2016
Seasons change, and so do Georgian food prices. In the second week of June, Georgia’s major food retail networks (Carrefour, Goodwill, Fresco, and SPAR) lowered their prices by an average of 3.9% y/y and 1.8% m/m. Compared to the end of May, prices moved the most for the following food items: eggplant (-21%), pasta (-10.3%), and coffee (-5.7%); wheat flour (+11%), buckwheat (+10.5%), and garlic (+6.8%).
