In the year of elections any piece of economic analysis is usually seasoned with a hefty dose of caution. Every analyst is aware of the fact that the incumbents will be too eager to oversell the ‘good’, while the opposition will pound on the ‘bad’. Weary of taking sides in political battles, economists usually switch on their primary defense mechanism: they start relying (heavily) on the annoying “on the one hand”, “on the other hand” kinds of phrases. I am of course referring to Georgia in the year of 2016.
What people should keep in mind, however, is t...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Jun
19
Jun
13
WHO BOASTS, AND WHY?
As argued by Omer Moav and Zvika Neeman in a 2012 paper (Moav taught at ISET in the past), boasting is a way to pretend that one has hidden income (“Saving Rates and Poverty: The Role of Conspicuous Consumption and Human Capital”, Economic Journal 122, pp. 933-956). While people may have a rough idea of the incomes of their neighbors, colleagues, friends, and other people they interact with, they usually do not know exactly how much they make. Hence, there is some wiggle room for speculation, and if one sees a colleague coming to wor...
Jun
06
When half a year ago, I predicted in my article “Georgia Exporting Crime” that the visa liberalization would be stalled in the last moment, I was called a grumbler and alarmist. Unfortunately, usually the pessimists get it right.
This week, a whole bunch of European politicians, primarily from Germany, expressed their rejection of the visa liberalization for Georgian citizens. As Joachim Hermann, Minster of the Interior of the province of Bavaria, stated bluntly: “I can only advise against visa liberalization with Ukraine, Georgia, and the Kosovo”. ...
Jun
05
In Central Europe, vocational education and training (VET) has a tradition that reaches back to medieval times. To become, say, a baker in 14th century Germany, one had to go through an apprenticeship of two years, working and learning in an existing bakery, where one was guided and supervised by a meister (master craftsman). The apprenticeship was standardized and – if successful – ended with the conferment of a certificate and admission to the baker’s guild.
Not only skills were acquired in the apprenticeship (e.g., kneading the dough) but also t...
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