Three Lead Economists from the ISET Policy Institute – Davit Keshelava, Mariam Lobjanidze, and Giorgi Papava – participated in the prestigious Growth Academy 2025, held in Bucharest, Romania, from May 22 to 24, 2025. The event, jointly organized by the World Bank, the University of Chicago, and the National Bank of Romania, brought together leading academics, policymakers, and development practitioners from across the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region.

This research aims to explain how Georgia’s economic development in the past 12-15 years took place despite the absence of rural-urban migration, defying the predictions of the Lewis Model - one of the most influential theories in development economics.

Economics Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, well-known for sharply criticizing the conventional wisdom of development economics, once summed up his views in a rhetorical question: “We have felt the pain, when do we get the gain?”