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?

How significant is welfare loss in the presence of cartels? How best to fight against cartels to avoid them ex-ante? These were the leading questions of the presentation of Dr. Andrea Mantovani (University of Bologna) at ISET on February 20, 2014.

The consultancy aimed to identify training programs that addresses actual labor market demand and devise an algorithm for matching the unemployed with these programs taking account of their skills, work experience and motivation. As part of this project, ISET-PI aimed to identify vocational training programs that address actual labor market demand, and devise an algorithm to assign registered unemployed to these programs (taking account of their skills, work experience and motivation).

On February 18, 2014, ISET hosted the Israeli Ambassador to Georgia, H.E. Yuval Fuchs. The ambassador gave a great presentation about the miracle of Israel as a start-up nation.

Regulations apparently address problems of a society in a quick and uncomplicated way, and the call for regulations, therefore, is one of the most effective weapons in the arsenal of populists. Whether or not regulation will help to solve the problem, in any case, it creates the impression that politicians are doing something.