Ukraine’s agriculture started progressing after the land reforms of 2001, which established an effective land rental market. While the titles to land still belong to former kolkhoz and sovkhoz members, agricultural land can now be easily aggregated and leased to interested businesses. Given the ease of entering and exiting the industry (and of extending farm size), this reform has unleashed a fast process of land consolidation (particularly until 2008) and productivity growth. Some of Ukraine’s largest farms currently span close to 150,000ha. For c...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Sep
18
Sep
16
Recently, I was made aware of an article by the famous Harvard economist Gregory N. Mankiw ("Defending the One Percent’’, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2013). In that article, he puts forward an interesting thought experiment. Assume we were in a state in which the market outcome would lead to absolute equality among economic agents. There was no need for redistribution, as anybody would get the same share of the pie anyway, and a lump-sum tax would finance government expenditures (which were still needed, as there is a demand for public goods). ...
Sep
13
On June 28, the Georgian Parliament passed a bill imposing a moratorium on land acquisition by foreigners and foreign-owned legal entities till the end of 2014. The bill effectively reversed an earlier policy that welcomed foreigners to settle and invest in Georgia’s agricultural sector, a policy culminating in the seemingly outlandish program seeking to bring to Georgia – and offer fast-track naturalization to – dozens of expert farmers from South Africa.
Rattled by this policy reversal, groups representing the expat business community in Georgia are tr...
Sep
09
Tchiatura is a small but resource rich and picturesque town, situated in the province of Imereti in Western Georgia. The abundance of an important natural resource, manganese ore, was the main reason for establishing the town in 1879. Akaki Tsereteli, the famous Georgian writer from the same region, initiated the manganese mining back then. To increase efficiency in transportation of the mineral, a railway was built in 1895.
By this period, up to 6000 workers were employed in the Tchiatura mines and the extracted material made up about 50% of total world...
Our Partners
