ISET

ISET Economist Blog

A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.

A graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Eric Livny has been living and working in Georgia since April 2007. Mr. Livny was the founding director and president of the International School of Economics at TSU (ISET) and the affiliated ISET Policy Institute over a decade, through July 2018. Prior to that, Eric held leading positions with the Moscow-based New Economic School (which he helped establish in 1992), and the Economics Education and Research Consortium. In 2000-2007, Mr. Livny served as the CIS representative of the Global Development Network (GDN), and led the GDN Bridging Research and Policy Project.
Eric’s policy research and consulting activities span a wide range of issues such as foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and national competitiveness, public private partnerships (PPPs) for economic development, inclusive growth, rural development and agricultural cooperation, economics of education, migration and labor markets, transport and economic geography.
Passionate about blogging and social media, Eric serves as editor-in-chief of, and is a frequent contributor to, the ISET Economist Blog, which he created together with other ISET faculty in 2011. Additionally, he is a columnist with Georgia Today, The Financial, and the Georgian Journal.
Eric was born in St.Petersburg (Russia) but grew up in Israel, where his family emigrated in 1977. He is married to Anna Sekowska Livny, and is the father of Katya, Jan, Natalie and Tal. Eric is fluent in English, Russian, and Hebrew. His Georgian language skills are fast improving.

Apr
01

Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan Agree to Form Transcaucasian Confederation by 2019

1 April, 2014, ISET Economist's special correspondent in Geneva. The ISET Economist was invited to attend the signing ceremony concluding the last round of trilateral negotiations held in Geneva under the joint sponsorship of the Swiss Confederation, the US, Russia and Turkey. The three countries, represented by heads of states, agreed to join the newly created Transcaucasian Confederation and thus bring peace and a promise of prosperity to a deeply divided region that has provided the setting for yet another round in the Great Game – the battle between ...
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Mar
17

"Inclusive Growth" Policies: Roads Paved with Good Intentions

The recently published government strategy “GEORGIA 2020” aims “to ensure that the majority of Georgia’s population benefits from economic growth”. The natural million-dollar question, however, is how this “inclusive growth” objective could be achieved in reality. In other words, how to make sure that the economy grows while creating jobs and business opportunities for the poor. Before delving into this “how” question, let’s state the obvious trade-off: efforts to achieve inclusivity by means of aggressive income redistribution (e.g. increased social ben...
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Feb
21

Lending by Georgian Banks Boosts Savings and Provides Shelter from Relatives in Need

Georgian households, being as poor as they are, don't save enough for the rainy day. Do low savings imply that Georgians are impatient to consume and do not care about their future? Is it in our genes that we prefer today’s egg to tomorrow’s chicken? Maybe our history, the history of a small nation struggling for survival, taught us to live our lives one day at a time? Let’s face it: while culture may definitely play a role in people’s attitude to saving (an issue to which we will come back in the second part of this article), the vast majority of G...
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Dec
23

The Educational Choices We Make...

Like many, I like having more choice, but hate making choices. As a result, many of the most important choices in my life, including the choice among alternative partners, have been made for me by … others. A 2010 New York Times article Too Many Choices: A Problem That Can Paralyze describes the findings of an experimental study by Sheena Iyengar, a Columbia Business School professor, which suggests that the problem of choice is indeed much more complicated than the standard textbook “truth” we are teaching ISET economics students. Here is how the experi...
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