The ability of families to meet their most basic needs is an important measure for the development of a country. Poverty touches on questions of human dignity and fairness in a society, but beyond that, poverty causes problems that may impair long run economic prospects, like crime, social unrest, and underinvestment in human capital. Given the libertarian agenda pursued by the United National Movement since the Rose Revolution, one might suspect that Georgia has a poverty problem. Is this true?
POVERTY IN GEORGIA
According to the ISET Consumer Confidenc...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Mar
05
Feb
26
Not long ago I heard an interesting statement from an appreciated person about schooling. He said that the "one-size-fits-all" or "factory" model of schools was an inefficient use of the children's time. According to his opinion, homeschooling could be more effective and yield better outcomes than standard mass education.
There is no doubt that the school system children are exposed to have an impact on their developments, starting at a relatively early age. So the topic is important for every country, but in particular for a country like Georg...
Feb
25
Recent strikes of minibus drivers in Tbilisi have reminded all of us about the long-forgotten issue of labor rights in Georgia. Since the new government came to power in the beginning of October, employee protests have become a regular “inconvenience”. Some strikes lasted longer than others, as in the case of the Chiatura manganese mine and Poti port, generating significant losses for the Georgian economy. The situation reminded me of a year I spent as an exchange student in Thessaloniki, Greece, where walkouts by public and private servants became a dai...
Feb
01
According to the Law of Georgia on Medical Activity[1], postgraduate medical education can take place only in accredited institutions and/or medical schools from March 2009 onwards. This seems to be a good initiative. Presumably, the goals of this law were to promote higher quality education for future doctors in the country and to deliver higher quality healthcare to the population of Georgia. These are relevant goals, of course, as the life of a human being in terms of both length and quality is and should be the most serious concern for every country....
Jan
23
In 1993 Joel Waldfogel published a paper “The Deadweight Loss of Christmas” in which he declared that the tradition of gift-giving causes economic losses for society because recipients generally value the items they receive as gifts less than the price that was paid by the givers. The source of this inefficiency is caused by the fact that the buyer is not the final consumer of a good and thus there may be a mismatch between the giver’s and the receiver’s preferences. Waldfogel’s study showed that gifts from friends and other people very close to the reci...
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