Our latest news comes from ISET resident lecturer and researcher, Professor Muhammad Asali. Recently, Professor Asali joined a group of prominent economists from around the world and took part in the 140th annual conference of the Western Economic Association International (WEAI).

The real GDP growth rate amounted to -11.5% year-on-year for January 2021. As a result of the update, the growth forecast for Q1 of 2021 remained unchanged, at -5.4%. ISET-PI’s second forecast for Q2 of 2021 puts GDP growth at a positive 11%.

In the modern world, plastic waste recycling has become one of the more crucial activities to combat environmental degradation. The plastic pollution portal from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlights that every year around 300 million tons of plastic waste is produced globally. Historically, 9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled and 12% incinerated, with the remaining 79% going to landfills. Plastic is now truly found worldwide, including within our very food and water, and it is already negatively impacting both wildlife and human wellbeing.

Reform progress analysis for policy making and public dialogue through ReforMeter: the objective of the proposed activity is to increase transparency, public accountability, and efficiency of Georgia’s economic reforms’ implementation and outcomes through engaging multiple stakeholders in the efficient dialogue.

Women are generally under-represented in political offices worldwide, and their under-representation becomes larger in more senior positions. In the first brief, the author reviews some recent academic literature in economics and political science on the likely causes of women’s under-representation. Broadly speaking, the literature has divided such causes into “supply-side” and “demand-side” factors.