New Economic School – Georgia

New Economic School – Georgia

Formation	2001
Type	Think-tank
Website	www.nes-g.org

The New Economic School – Georgia (NESG) (in Georgian: ახალი ეკონომიკური სკოლა საქართველო) is a free market think-tank, non-profit organisation, NGO based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Its main mission is education of young people in free market ideas. It organizes seminars, workshops and conferences for education and exchanges of ideas. NESG was founded by Georgian individuals to fill the gap of the market economy knowledge in the country and the deficit of good teachers and economics textbooks. According to the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania), NESG was number 22 (of 45) "Top Think Tanks in Central Asia".

The name New Economic School means different vision, school of thought. NESG is not an academic institution but rather a voluntary cooperation of individuals to find more ideas about Human Action. NESG was established as an alternative to Marxian school which was very influential having an absolute monopoly in the academic circles and universities in Georgia.

Vision

According to its web-site, NESG is a free market think-tank. It helps the new generations in Georgia and the South Caucasus to understand more about how the market works. It is also supporting young politicians and journalists to find out what kind of economic policies exist in the world. Ideas of the NESG are based on the two approaches of Public Choice and Austrian School of Economics. NESG seminars teach their students ideas of Adam Smith, Carl Menger. Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock and other great thinkers of free market economic schools.

Activities

NESG is active in two directions seminars and publications. The activities are financed by the NESG and its partners European or American charitable foundations. All the publications are posted on the web-site of the NESG and can be downloaded for free. NESG doesn't charge any fee for participating in the seminars.

The themes of the seminars and publications are academic and public policy to bring better knowledge to young people. Main policy ideas discussed by the participants on the seminars are: property rights, education, health, pensions, public transportation, public finances etc. These ideas are crucial for the Georgian individuals to get rid of poverty and reorganize country of Georgia into a contemporary market society of free but responsible people.

NESG has organized more than 800 events, up to 100 international, with participants from more than 60 countries, in total up to 35 thousands.

NESG played an important role in the famous Georgian reforms - by trainings of public officials, organizing discussions and workshops, as well as training of politicians, journalists, judges and representatives non-governmantal sector (2005-2012). To support the reforms intellectually and practically NESG invited to Georgia several famous reformers Mart Laar, former PM, Estonia, Ruth Richardson, former Finance Minister, New Zealand, Laiosz Bokros, former Finance Minister, Hungary,as well as many famous thinkers from the Economic Freedom network: James Gwartney, Steve Hanke, Richard Ebeling, Tom Palmer, Andrei Illarionov, Krassen Stanchev, Pierre Garello, Johan Norberg.)

NESG is actively involved in educational activities - economics and business for high schools. NESG translated Lithuanian Economics textbook and created its own Business textbook - both published at the special web site (http://www.schooleconomics.org). In the recent years NESG trained more than 800 high school teachers of economics and business.

Web-sites

NESG uses its web-site for educational purposes. All articles, e-books, video and audio materials put on the web-site (http://www.nes-g.org) are free to use and download and are a great help for the young people who can't pay high fees to study abroad or buy expensive textbooks. The web-site includes a special internal page: Home Education. The second web-site for high school economics and business education is at (http://www.schooleconomics.org).

Most of the materials on the web-sites are in English and Georgian languages. There are also some e-books in Russian, Turkish, German and French.

Freedom Library

NESG holds the largest free market library in the region that is open to local and foreign scholars. The books are mostly publications of the Liberty Fund and Mises Institute. The collection consists of about a thousand books and media.

Publications

Publications of the NESG in Georgian: Library of Liberty volumes:

1. Basics of Liberalism, 2005
2. Liberalism and Power, 2006
3. Property and Liberty, 2007
4. Intellectuals, Education and Liberty, 2008
5. Liberal Reforms, 2009
6. Liberal Thinkers, 2010
7. Money of Liberty, 2011

Other publications:

• Adventures of Johnathan Gullible, Ken Schooland 2007, 2023
• Law and Which is Seen and Which is not seen, Frederic Bastiat, 2008
• Georgian Lectures, Tibor Machan, 2007
• Journalist's Guide to Economics, 2008
• Bureaucracy, Ludwig von Mises, 2013
• Freedom and the Law, Bruno Leoni, 2014
• Collection of Works, Frederick Bastiat, 2021
• Collection of Works, Ludwig von Mises, 2022
• Collection of Works, Friedrich von Hayek, 2022
• Power of Capitalism, Rainer Zitelmann, 2023
• Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt, 2024

Think-Tank Networks

NESG is a member of several free market networks such as:

• Economic Freedom Network of the Fraser Institute of Canada (from 2004)
• World taxpayers Associations World Taxpayers Associations (2009)
• Free Market Road Show Free Market Road Show (2006)
• Atlas Network Atlas Network (2004)
• European Resource Bank Real-Estate Broker Europe (2005)
• Coalition for European Georgia (2011)
• Tea Party World Movement (2012)
• 4Liberty.eu (2020)

NESG Partners

NESG has many local and foreign partners, including Friedrich Naumann Foundation (http://www.fnf.org/) Atlas Network (https://www.atlasnetwork.org/) University of Georgia (https://ug.edu.ge/) Free University of Tbilisi (https://freeuni.edu.ge/ge/) Free the People (https://freethepeople.org/) Tens of other valuable partners globally are included in the networks counted above.