Many countries in the world run their public pension systems under the so called pay-as-you-go (PAYG) scheme, where pensioners receive their money from those who are currently working. The transfers are made through separate obligatory contributions to the pension system or through general taxes. Unfortunately but predictably, in the last decades the shrinking and ageing populations caused severe problems for PAYG systems, both in advanced as well as in less developed countries. An inevitable consequence of people living longer and fertility rates going ...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Apr
05
Mar
27
Those among our readers who happened to spend a good deal of their lifetimes in the Soviet Union may remember that there was not just one kind of socialism, but there were many different versions. For example, socialist countries favored different ways to achieve industrialization and economic progress. In China, Mao pushed for what one could call “grassroots industrialization” – villages, small towns, and urban collectives were supposed to independently set up industrial endeavors. Rice farmers started to build up manufacturing plants, factories, and ev...
Mar
19
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a very special country. When in 2004 King Wangchuck announced that there would be free elections and the kingdom would be gradually transformed into a democracy, people demonstrated in the streets against these reforms. They were so satisfied with their monarchy and their ruler that they tried to urge him not to give away any of his absolute powers to an elected parliament.
Also economically, Bhutan is special. It is the only country in the world that does not try to maximize the gross domestic product (GDP). Instead, King Wangch...
Mar
15
On the 8th of March, Georgia joined many other countries around the world in celebrating the International Women’s Day. While this particular way of appreciating the many contributions of the Georgian women may be said to have been inherited from the Soviet Union, women have historically played very important roles in Georgian society and politics. The most prominent among them were Medea of Colchis, St. Nino, who brought orthodox Christianity to our country, and “King” Tamar, who ruled the state in its “Golden Age“. It was during this “Golden Age“, as e...
Mar
08
Georgia’s current rank in the ease of “hiring and firing practices” and “redundancy costs” (weeks of salary an employer is required to pay a dismissed worker) is 9th and 13th, respectively (World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, 2012-13). While a matter of pride for Georgia’s previous administration, the liberal labor legislation has become a major bone of contention between the UNM and its many critics (constructive and otherwise), including local labor unions, International Labor Organization (ILO), the European Union (EU) and the US. Th...
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