Assuring access to modern energy services for the whole population is a crucial step to improve human well-being and stimulate economic and social development. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has identified the lack of access to modern energy services as one of the main obstacles to overcome in order to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. In its 2011 World Energy Outlook, the IEA argued forcefully about the need to find and mobilize the resources required to extend access to modern energy services to the poor around the world.

On February 25, 2014, ISET hosted Dr. Sergei Izmalkov of the Moscow New Economic School. Dr. Izmalkov, who works with the most popular Russian search engine, Yandex, presented a paper he co-authored with Dmitry Arkhanglesky, Dilyara Khakimova, and Sergey Lyashenko, titled: “On the evaluation of click-through rates and conversion rates of different positions in sponsored search auctions”.

Last week, we argued that political decision-makers have a tendency to overregulate a society, as new laws, even useless or harmful ones, create the impression that politicians are addressing problems in society. Moreover, we outlined the theory of a military historian who claims that the Red Army was an “overregulated army”, explaining the disproportionate death toll of the Red Army in the Second World War.

On February 19, 2014, ISET hosted a round table meeting on the World Bank’s draft of its Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) with Georgia for the FY 2014-2017. The purpose of the consultation meeting was to receive critical feedback from think tanks on the CPS to help determine the most effective country partnership strategy.

Georgian households, being as poor as they are, don't save enough for the rainy day. Do low savings imply that Georgians are impatient to consume and do not care about their future? Is it in our genes that we prefer today’s egg to tomorrow’s chicken? Maybe our history, the history of a small nation struggling for survival, taught us to live our lives one day at a time?