In recent years, many countries in Europe and the former Soviet Union have seen an explosion in university enrollment. During approximately 10 years (from 1999 until 2010) higher education enrollment increased by 64% in Central and Eastern Europe, 27% in Central Asia and South Caucasus, and 19% in Western Europe and North America (see UNESCO).
1999-2005
2005-2010
1999-2010
Low enrollment level in 1999 (below 30$)
Country
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ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Apr
24
Mar
22
The very sharp seasonal fluctuations in the prices of many agricultural products in Georgia are indicative of the state of the Georgian agricultural sector. Agriculture provides a safety net for a very large number of jobless people who might otherwise be starving, and thus serves a very important social function. However, many of those employed in agriculture are individual subsistence farmers, lacking in skills and resources to move to the next level in terms of productivity.
Small farmers all over the world have a hard time coping with the risks inher...
Feb
29
Last week, The Economist published a comparison of the costs of pancake ingredients across many countries of the world. The pancake recipe used for the calculations included flour, eggs, milk and butter – all of which are also part of the Khachapuri Index regularly compiled by the ISET Policy Institute. Thus, incorporating Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia was a piece of (pan)cake!
Table 1: Cost of pancake ingredients (12-15 portions) in the South Caucasus, USD
The good news is that pancakes (and khachapuri) are still a lot cheaper to cook in the S...
Dec
09
Twenty years ago, on 26 December 1991, USSR broke into 15 pieces, 15 independent states. Amid great hopes, each of these states embarked on a path of transition: from socialism, from one-party state system, from the relative security of a small city apartment, a dacha, and a Lada to… an uncertain future.
For the small Baltic pieces of the USSR puzzle, this road led to EU membership and all of the associated goodies. For many others, however, this may have been a “transition from nowhere to no place” (see the eponymous 2004 bestseller by my number one con...
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