Travel and Tourism is one of the largest and fastest-growing service industries globally. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the industry’s direct contribution to World GDP in 2012 was US$ 2.1 trillion (2012 prices) and it supported 101 million jobs.
Measuring economic developments is often a laborious business. Consider, for example, the Consumer Price Index (CPI). One first has to define the so-called consumption basket that contains the goods and services whose prices you want to track. These goods and services have to be represented in the basket in the right proportions, reflecting the consumption patterns of an average consumer.
To what extent do prices formed in natural trading modes aggregate dispersed information? This was the leading question of the presentation Professor Asher Wolinsky held at ISET on September 9, 2013. The presentation was based on the joint work of Stephan Lauermann and Asher Wolinsky.
According to data provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in the last five years, there were two hikes in global food prices.
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.