Today and tomorrow over a third of the world’s population (around 2 billion people) will be celebrating Christmas1. Traditionally, the holiday season will inevitably feature an exchange of gifts. The sums spent on Christmas gift-giving are huge! For example, in 2018 the expected spending on Christmas gifts in the United States is around 885 USD per person2 – this is about 2.8% of what someone in the middle of income distribution earns per year.

A number of reports released during late spring described and explained global achievements related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). First released was the World Bank’s “Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2018”, which shed light on trends on a regional level (Georgia is categorized as a lower-middle-income country).

Assessment of the project effect on incomes generated in small farmer families involved in the livestock rearing in Kakheti region. The overall objective of the assignment is to conduct cost-benefit and/or cost-effectiveness analysis together with the project team and identify monetary and nonmonetary benefits of interventions

In the world of the 21st century, the number of people living without electricity in their homes is 1.3 billion. Even among those who have access, many do not own basic assets such as refrigerators, motorized transport, or washing machines. However, it is anticipated that over the next several decades, wide-scale poverty alleviation programs, as well as continued economic growth, will lift the incomes of many of the world’s poor.

People who decide to leave their country and test their luck elsewhere are usually no random sample of a population. In his 1987 paper “Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants” (American Economic Review 77, pp. 531-553), Harvard Political Scientist George J. Borjas discusses the so-called self-selection of migrants. As of 1987, the standard view among migration economists was that migrants, at least those who came to the United States, belonged to the “upper tails” of the income distributions in their home countries.