Innovation-driven growth has long been understood as a restless, uneven process. In the Schumpeterian tradition – captured formally by Aghion and Howitt’s model of creative destruction – economies progress when new, higher-quality technologies displace older ones, pushing the productivity frontier outward.

Georgia's post-pandemic recovery has been marked by strong macroeconomic performance, with real GDP surpassing pre-pandemic trends and labor market indicators showing notable improvement. However, this research note examines whether this recovery reflects genuine structural transformation or masks deeper challenges of labor market polarization.

Economic development of the municipalities (outside capital) is one of the key sustainable development challenges in Georgia. The capital city of Tbilisi, while accounting for nearly 1/3 of the country’s population generates 50% of GDP and keeps expanding, whereas the municipalities, with few exceptions, are losing population and suffering from high incidence of poverty, unemployment, and slow and weak economic development.

The project, Development of Methodology for Child-Rights-Based Budget Analysis, funded by UNICEF, aims to create a systematic approach for analyzing public budgets in Georgia through the lens of child rights. Its objective is to ensure that public financial decisions prioritize children’s needs, promote equity, and align with international standards such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.