In the early 1980’s, Soviet engineers drove a prospection tunnel into Sakdrissi hillock close to the small town of Kazreti, about 50 kilometers south of Tbilisi. Much to their surprise, they discovered that the hillock already bore a labyrinth of tunnels, and, as quickly became clear, these tunnels were manmade. An old gold mine had been discovered.
25 years later, a Georgian-German team of archaeologists excavated the site and reopened the ancient entrance to the mining complex. Inside the tunnels and around the entrance they found plenty of artefacts o...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Sep
06
Jul
29
Recently, the Georgian authorities cracked down on Nigerian students who allegedly did not really study but used their student visas for getting access to the Georgian labor market. Yet their residence permits were withdrawn without proper verification that this suspicion was actually true. We know of a young Nigerian woman who, according to her university instructors, was studying at UG fully seriously. After three years of studies, shortly before acquiring her degree, her visa extension was denied and she had not alternative but to return to Nigeria.
T...
Jul
22
Everyone using the service of the Tbilisi marshrutkas experiences one of two extreme cases: the marshutka either moves tantalizingly slowly or excessively fast. How can this apparent paradox be explained? In search for an answer, let us turn to game theory, one of the appealing outgrows of mathematical economics.
GAME THEORY IN ACTION
A game is a situation in which different parties, usually called players, independently make decisions. Unlike in a unilateral decision problem, in a game the payoff of each player depends on the actions taken by himself an...
Jul
19
Tbilisi public transportation resembles a classic Greek tragedy. In those pieces, usually the gods interfere with human affairs and create a big mess. In Tbilisi, marshrutkas were operating in a competitive market and state intervention led to the creation of a monopoly. In Greek tragedies, once the fateful events have started, the tension increases more and more until the story reaches its climax – the showdown between the hero and his adversary. In the Tbilisi marshrutka business, the prices increase more and more and, while the quality of servi...
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