How can a society become more prosperous? This question has been on the minds of economists and policymakers for centuries.

In 1905, Max Weber, in his masterpiece, “The Protestant Ethics and Spirit of Capitalism”, proposed an interesting hypothesis which claimed that Protestantism, Calvinism, and Puritan ethics influenced the development of capitalism.

We were not off to a good start in 2012. On 20 January, we lost our dear Mzia Mikeladze. Her sudden passing away has shaken the entire ISET community but life had to continue… We created a memorial fund and a special scholarship to encourage young ISET students to remember Mzia and to follow in her footsteps.

This is the last issue of the Khachapuri Index column in 2012 (#44 this year and #74 overall since the project’s launch in June 2011). Therefore, we would like to wish our readers many causes for the magnificent Georgian supra in the new 2013, with a lot of khachapuri and wine.

This blog post is a sequel to “Price of a Woman: Economic Rationale behind Marriage Payments in Georgia”. I recently found very interesting data about bride prices in the Georgian highlands and the North Caucasus, which I am now going to share with you.