CEU eTD Collection (2025); Voronova, Tatiana: RUShing to Georgia: Migration and Rental Affordability in 2022-2023

CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
Author Voronova, Tatiana
Title RUShing to Georgia: Migration and Rental Affordability in 2022-2023
Summary Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered a substantial migration wave to Georgia, increasing the population by approximately 6.5%. Its economic implications, particularly for rental affordability, remain understudied. This thesis investigates changes in rents and wages following the migration, focusing on the association between the arrival of predominantly remote-working Russian migrants and rental market dynamics. Using monthly and quarterly data from 2016 to 2023, the analysis applies Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and two-way fixed effects models to estimate changes in rent growth, wage growth, and rental affordability. The results indicate a significant increase in rent growth following the migration, especially in Tbilisi. Although wages also increased, there is suggestive evidence of a decline in affordability in the capital. These findings highlight the vulnerability of urban housing markets to sudden demand shocks and support the case for stronger rental regulation.
Supervisor Kaufmann, Marc
Department Economics MA
Full texthttps://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/voronova_tatiana.pdf

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