Expanded Summary

The phenomenon of Retroeconomics has not been overcome in most post-Soviet countries for decades. The study of the factors of its emergence and socio-economic cause-and-effect is still ongoing. It is important to admit that Retroeconomics is a characteristic not only of developing, but also of highly developed countries. Along with economic aspects, it is important to study the impact and effects of Retroeconomics that affect the social conditions of the population.

The present paper itself is a part of an integral research for the dissertation, which discusses main directions of overcoming Retroeconomics in the conditions of globalization using the example of Georgia.

Transformation process of post-Soviet countries covers many topics, though problematic of overcoming Retroeconomics for further economic development offers wide array of unsolved social-economic tasks for research and analyses. Transformation period for post-Soviet countries has been prolonged due to non-existence of economic theory covering this subject and consequently, non-existence of prior practical examples. That is why many reforms and solutions have been going via trial and error.  

The most complicated subject in this direction for years remained the transformation of Homo Sovieticus to Homo Economicus. Many problems in Retroeconomics of developing countries are linked to the existence of various so-called traps of different kinds: technological and institutional traps which create serious obstacles and hindrances to the way to development. We will refer to and discuss such well-known traps mentioned in economic literature, as Path Dependence, “locked-in” conditions, ‘vicious circle of poverty’ and so on.

Our particular attention will be drawn to the problem of inequality as a cause of the transformation processes and not only. We will trace the difficulties created for vulnerable, financially poor economic actors and representatives of the society as they can never affect any ongoing processes of the development, though the throughout research of this problem may contribute to its solution. The discussion will cover the problems, caused by the above-mentioned traps in post-Soviet countries and also in developed ones. In the economics we can call it a visible “white spot” and unite it under the heading of Economics of poverty or the Economics of the poor. During the transformations Retroeconomics and the economics of the poor are subsequent, parallel realities. In this paper it is underlined that the developed economies also face and fight the same problem of the poverty.  The main finding for me as for an author is that the similarity between the Retroeconomics in the post-Soviet countries (during their transformations to the market economies) and the developed world with already existing, long-established market economies is the economics of poverty; in technologically and institutionally developed countries the poverty is an unchanging issue on the agenda. Despite the fact that there are hundreds of theories, programs and ways to eradicate it, this problem remains one of the primary challenges of contemporary world.

In the conclusion, as a solution of the given problem will be offered a brief overview of the knowledge-based development as a basis for intellectual transformation of economic actors (Homo Transformaticus), whose education and knowledge should be regarded as an asset. As the best framework for improvements in this dimension will be introducing the latest quintuple helix version of EUTOHA (Emerging Unified Theory of
Helix Architectures) system which is constantly improving.

Assuming that it is impossible to discuss all problems of social aspects of Retroeconomics and the ways of their solution in this brief paper, it offers a glimpse to the huge topic, which is still a pressing problem for the entire world economists.

Keywords: Retroeconomics, the problem of poverty, education, knowledge-based development.