On February 19th, ISET hosted Lasha Chochua from the University of Bielefeld. Mr. Chochua presented the preliminary version of his paper "Endogenous Trade Policy in the Presence of Lobbying and Heterogeneously Ignorant Voters" coauthored with George Papava from the University of Chicago.
On February 18, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) lead economist for Central Asia and Georgia, Agris Preimanis, delivered two presentations at ISET titled: 1) “Oil-driven Russia downturn adds to weakness in EBRD economies” and 2) “Innovation in Transition”.
In January, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri fell to 3.40GEL. The Index lost 7% month-on-month (compared to December 2014) and 5.4 % year-on-year (compared to January 2014).
Until 2012, Georgia has been encouraging foreigners to purchase land, bring modern technology and management to the country’s ailing agricultural sector. On the one hand, Georgia’s extremely liberal approach was a boon for investment by global food industry giants such as Ferrero (4,000ha hazelnut plantation in Samegrelo) and Hipps (growing of organic apple and production of aroma and apple concentrate in Shida Kartli).
Worldwide, cash transfer programs are used to fight poverty. Developing countries typically spend between 1% and 2% of GDP on cash transfers (“Cash Transfers: a Literature Review”, DFID Policy Division, 2011). International donors also invest substantially into such programs.