Ulrich Koester, Professor of Agricultural Economics at Kiel University and IAMO Visiting Research Fellow paid a visit to ISET on May 30. During his presentation, Prof. Koester provided an overview of the specifics of the agricultural sector and its impact on agricultural trade; furthermore, he clarified that traditional trade theory is of minor relevance for explaining agricultural trade policies and trade flows.

On the 25th of May, ISET was pleased to host the environmental economist and founder of the consultancy company GIST Advisory, Pavan Sukhdev, for a presentation. Starting his career as a physicist, Mr. Sukhdev got interested in the challenges of environmental protection. This led him to investigate economics, particularly aiming at understanding the significance of businesses as a driver of the changes that we see around us as well as third-party impacts, which are known as externalities in economics.

Given Georgia’s dysfunctional educational sector, it is impressive how many Georgians excel intellectually. For example, ISET regularly sends some of its graduates to the best Ph.D. programs in the world, proving that many Georgians succeed in realizing their intellectual potentials despite unfavorable conditions. At the same time, we notice that a considerable share of students who get enrolled at ISET are not well-endowed with essential knowledge and competencies, lacking, for example, presentation skills, writing proficiency, and resourcefulness in discussion and argumentation.

The SCMI Secretariat continues developing information and analytical documents in the field of migration aimed at highlighting tendencies and development perspectives based on relevant data collected.

On April 10, ISET students delivered yet another policy seminar. A presentation entitled “Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) & Economic Growth. Case of Georgia” was delivered by Givi Gujaraidze, Tinatin Mumladze, Kristine Gureshidze, and Shota Bakhuashvili under the supervision of Eric Livny, President of ISET, and Yaroslava Babych, Head of Macroeconomic Policy Research Center at ISET Policy Institute.