The large economies have each, in sequence, offered "models" that once seemed attractive to others but that eventually gave way to disillusionment. Small countries may have some answers.
A recent paper by Dani Rodrik has an interesting observation about Georgia. The paper itself estimates the productivity growth rates of manufacturing firms, based on a UNIDO dataset covering 72 countries.
The New York Times ran an article about Lazika, the planned city near Zugdidi, on the Black Sea coast. It’s not the only attempt to build a new city from the scratch in the South Caucasus, as Azerbaijan has similar plans.
I was happy to see that my blog post “Who needs a safety net?” stimulated a lively debate, which was exactly its purpose. However, so many points have been raised that I have decided to write a new post on the topic rather than answering each one of them separately.
One of the current economic mysteries of the South Caucasus and the source of certain uneasiness on the part of world development organizations has been the significant rise in the recent years of the consumption to output ratio in Georgia.