It all started with a simple exercise for my Master’s project in which I tried to understand the underlying causes of the observed wage gap between ethnic Georgians and ethnic minorities in the country. After more than a decade, a reputable international journal has published a paper reporting on the experimental evidence my colleagues and I collected and analyzed on labor market outcomes for ethnic minority and female citizens of Georgia.

On December 5, ISET organized yet another informational tour for its BA students. This time students visited the FRIXX factory, during which they were introduced to the technical operations and business strategy of the company. They were welcomed by Giorgi Darakhvelidze, General Manager, and Mariam Gabatashvili, Commercial Manager, who gave them a factory tour and showed them how FRIXX potato chips are made.

This year has plagued a number of countries with tremendous natural disasters and extreme weather events. Greece was challenged with extensive fires and South Africa with a shortage of water. As late as November this year, the US was still struggling to tame forest fires. Something is certainly happening with the climate. These problems arise from society only being concerned with growth.

The average cost of cooking one standard portion of Imeretian Khachapuri stood at 3.62 GEL in November 2018. This is 0.8% higher month-on-month (compared to October 2018), and 2.2% lower year-on-year (compared to the previous November, 2017).

On 28 November, the Georgian Central Election Commission (CEC) will hold the second round of the very last direct presidential election in Georgia before the constitutional pivot to indirect elections. This is the last stage of a political reform aiming at replacing the presidential political arrangement with the parliamentary system. The president’s powers in the new system will be extremely limited and largely symbolic.