Alexi Gugushvili

• Zelinska, Olga; Gugushvili, Alexi & Bulczak, Grzegorz (2021). Social Mobility, Health and Wellbeing in Poland. Frontiers in Sociology. ISSN 2297-7775. 6, p. 1–11. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2021.736249.
• Gugushvili, Alexi & Reeves, Aaron (2021). How democracy alters our view of inequality — and what it means for our health. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. 283(114190), p. 1–12. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114190. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Income inequality is associated with poor health when economic disparities are especially salient. Yet, political institutions may alter this relationship because democracies (as opposed to autocracies) may be more inclined to frame inequalities in negative rather than positive ways. Living in a particular political system potentially alters the messages individuals receive about whether inequality is large or small, good or bad, and this, in turn, might affect whether beliefs about inequality influence health. Further, media coverage of economic inequality may negatively affect health if it contributes toward the general perception that the gap between rich and poor has gone up, even if there has been no change in income differentials. Methods In this study, we explore the relationship between democracy, perceptions of inequality, and self-rated health across 28 post-communist countries using survey and macro-level data, multilevel regression models, and inverse probability weighting to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated. Results We find that self-rated health is higher in more democratic countries and lower among people who believe that inequality has risen in the last few years. Moreover, we observe that people in democracies are more likely to learn about rising inequality through watching television and that when they do it has a more harmful effect on their health than when people in autocracies learn about rising inequality through the same channel, suggesting that in countries where there is less trust in the television media learning about rising inequality is not as harmful for health. Conclusions Our results indicate that while democracies are generally good for well-being, they may not be unambiguously positive for health. This does not mean, of course, that inequality is good for health nor that, on average, autocracies have better health than democracies; but rather that being more aware of inequality can negatively affect self-rated health.

• Jarosz, Ewa & Gugushvili, Alexi (2021). BMI and dissatisfaction with life: contextual factors and socioemotional costs of obesity. Quality of Life Research. ISSN 0962-9343. p. 1–11. doi: 10.1007/s11136-021-02912-3. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2021). Equality of opportunity and health in post-COVID world. Public Health in Practice. ISSN 2666-5352. 2, p. 1–2. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100135. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Links between equality of opportunity and health in post-COVID world must be an issue of general interest to academic, health, and policy audiences in the developed countries and other parts of the world. We already know that COVID-19 disproportionally affects most vulnerable and marginalised groups, while their positions in social hierarchy are strongly shaped by intergenerational transmission of advantages and disadvantages. Further, recent evidence from the United States and Europe also suggests that inequality of opportunity has significant negative consequences for health. This correspondence end with a call that decision makers, while rebuilding the post-COVID social model, should remember that equality of opportunity is not only fair but it is also good for health.

• Zelinska, Olga; Gugushvili, Alexi & Bulczak, Grzegorz (2021). The Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN) Dataset: Capturing the impact of socio-economic change on population health and well-being in Poland, 1988-2018. Data in Brief. ISSN 2352-3409. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2021.106936. Show summary

  The Polish Panel Survey, POLPAN, one of the longest continuously run panel studies in Europe, is designed to facilitate research on the socio-economic structure in Poland, inequalities and the individual life course under conditions of social change. POLPAN is well suited for studying how women and men's health and wellbeing are influenced by their life conditions, such as financial and social resources, that Poland's post-1989 profound socio-economic transformations impacted, and how health outcomes further shape individuals’ attitudes and behaviours. Initiated in 1987-88, POLPAN has been fielded in five-year intervals, most recently in 2018, with wave-specific samples representative of the Polish adult population and response rates for full panelists consistently above 70%. In POLPAN, health assessment measures are collected in all waves, as part of respondents’ multi-dimensional and life course inequality profile. Data on self-rated physical and psychological health, collected since 1998 (Wave Three), are complemented with respondents’ Nottingham Health Profile and core anthropometric information about personal weight and height (Wave Five onwards); health and wellbeing related reasons for work interruptions (since Wave Four); information on extensive hospital stays (Wave Six onwards) and respondents’ chronic or protracted illnesses (in Wave Six), respondents’ disability status (all waves). The newly released integrated 1988-2018 POLPAN dataset is available on Harvard Dataverse, or upon request, via e-mail: polpan@ifispan.waw.pl.

• Gugushvili, Alexi & McKee, Martin (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and war. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1403-4948. doi: 10.1177/1403494821993732.
• Präg, Patrick & Gugushvili, Alexi (2021). Subjective social mobility and health in Germany. European Societies. ISSN 1461-6696. doi: 10.1080/14616696.2021.1887916.
• Gugushvili, Alexi & Präg, Patrick (2021). Intergenerational social mobility and health in Russia: Mind over matter? Advances in Life Course Research. ISSN 1569-4909. 47, p. 1–13. doi: 10.1016/j.alcr.2020.100390. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi; Zhao, ‪‪Yizhang & Bukodi, Erzsebet (2020). Intergenerational educational mobility and smoking: a study of 20 European countries using diagonal reference models. Public Health. ISSN 0033-3506. 181, p. 94–101. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2019.12.009.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2020). Social origins of support for democracy: a study of intergenerational mobility. International Review of Sociology. ISSN 0390-6701. 30(2), p. 376–396. doi: 10.1080/03906701.2020.1776918. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2020). Which socio-economic comparison groups do individuals choose and why? European Societies. ISSN 1461-6696. p. 1–27. doi: 10.1080/14616696.2020.1793214. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2020). Why do people perceive themselves as being downwardly or upwardly mobile? Acta Sociologica. ISSN 0001-6993. p. 1–21. doi: 10.1177/0001699320929742. Full text in Research Archive
• McKee, Martin; Gugushvili, Alexi; Koltai, Jonathan & Stuckler, David (2020). Are Populist Leaders Creating the Conditions for the Spread of COVID-19? International Journal of Health Policy and Management. ISSN 2322-5939. p. 1–5. doi: 10.34172/IJHPM.2020.124. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi & Kaiser, Caspar (2020). Equality of opportunity is linked to lower mortality in Europe. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. ISSN 0143-005X. 74, p. 151–157. doi: 10.1136/jech-2019-212540.
• Jarosz, Ewa & Gugushvili, Alexi (2020). The ‘good life’ of Polish migrants in Britain: Daily behaviours and subjective well‐being of migrants, stayers and the British. Population, Space and Place. ISSN 1544-8444. 26(7), p. 1–13. doi: 10.1002/psp.2343. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2020). A Population Health Perspective on the Trump Administration, Brexit, and Right-Wing Populism in Europe. American Journal of Public Health. ISSN 0090-0036. 110(3), p. 274–276. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305535.
• Gugushvili, Alexi; Koltai, Jonathan; Stuckler, David & McKee, Martin (2020). Votes, populism, and pandemics. International Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1661-8556. 65, p. 721–722. doi: 10.1007/s00038-020-01450-y.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2019). Parental Education, Health Literacy and Children’s Height in Adult Life. European Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1101-1262. 29.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2019). Compared to whom? Reference groups in socio-economic comparisons and self-reported health. European Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1101-1262. 29.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2019). Equality of Opportunity and Mortality in Europe. European Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1101-1262. 29.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2019). A multilevel analysis of perceived intergenerational mobility and welfare state preferences. International Journal of Social Welfare. ISSN 1369-6866. 28(1), p. 16–30. doi: 10.1111/ijsw.12316.
• Gugushvili, Alexi; McKee, Martin & Murphy, Michael (2019). Intergenerational Mobility in Relative Educational Attainment and Health-Related Behaviours. Social Indicators Research. ISSN 0303-8300. 141, p. 413–441. Full text in Research Archive
• Doniec, Katarzyna; Stefler, Denes; Murphy, Michael & Gugushvili, Alexi (2019). Education and mortality in three Eastern European populations: findings from the PrivMort retrospective cohort study. European Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1101-1262. 29(3), p. 549–554. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/cky254.
• Gugushvili, Alexi & Kabachnik, Peter (2019). Stalin on Their Minds: A Comparative analysis of Public Perceptions of the Soviet Dictator in Russia and Georgia. International Journal of Sociology. ISSN 0020-7659. 49(5-6), p. 317–341. doi: 10.1080/00207659.2019.1661559.
• Gugushvili, Alexi & Jarosz, Ewa (2019). Inequality, validity of self-reported height, and its implications for BMI estimates: An analysis of randomly selected primary sampling units' data. Preventive Medicine Reports. ISSN 2211-3355. 16, p. 1–8. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.100974. Show summary

  Any systematic errors in self-reported height, a measure commonly used in health research, may produce biased BMI estimates and reduce the effectiveness of public health interventions. To our knowledge, none of the studies evaluating the validity of self-reported height explore this issue in cross-national settings. This study analyses data on a sub-set of 750 individuals with information on self-reported and measured height from the Life in Transition Survey (LITS) conducted in 34 European and Central Asian countries in 2016. We make use of the unique design of LITS in which all respondents reported their height, but in one randomly selected primary sampling unit in each country the actual height was also measured, using a portable stadiometer. In addition to analysing individual-level characteristics, using a multiply imputed dataset for missing data and multilevel mixed-effects regressions, we test if macro-level factors are associated with respondents under- or over-reporting their height. We find that on the aggregate level self-reported and measured height estimates are not statistically different, but some socio-demographic groups such as women and those who live in rural areas are likely to overestimate their height. Adjusting for this bias would lead to the higher estimates of the proportion of individuals who are overweight and obese. The results from multilevel analysis also show that macro-level factors do not per se explain the likelihood of misreporting height, but rather some of the effects of individual characteristics are moderated by income inequality.

• Gugushvili, Alexi; Zhao, Yizhang & Bukodi, Erzsebet (2019). ‘Falling from grace’ and ‘rising from rags’: Intergenerational educational mobility and depressive symptoms. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. 222, p. 294–304. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.027. Show summary

  With this study, we make a number of contributions to the ongoing debate on the implications of intergenerational mobility for individuals' health. First, instead of focusing on absolute intergenerational mobility in educational attainment, we analyse varying implications of relative intergenerational mobility for depressive symptoms by considering the distribution of educational credentials separately in the parental and offspring generations. Second, unlike conventional approaches, which predominantly emphasise that upward and downward mobility has a negative effect, we argue that upward mobility might improve individuals' mental well-being and that this effect may vary by gender. Third, we use statistical approach which was designed specifically to study the consequences of intergenerational mobility and does not conflate mobility effects with effects of the positions of origin and destination. Using the 2012–2014 waves of the European Social Survey and data for 52,773 individuals nested in 28 societies, we fit the diagonal reference models with both individuals' short- and long-range experiences of intergenerational educational mobility. The results indicate that upward and downward mobility is associated with, respectively, lower and higher levels of depressive symptoms, as measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, and that these effects are only observed among men.

• Gugushvili, Alexi; Jarosz, Ewa & McKee, Martin (2019). Compared with whom? Reference groups in socio-economic comparisons and self-reported health in 34 countries. International Journal of Epidemiology. ISSN 0300-5771. 48(8), p. 1710–1720. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyz122. Show summary

  Background The association between socio-economic position and health is believed to be mediated, in part, by psycho-social comparison of one’s situation with that of others. But with whom? Possibilities include family, friends, elites, or even those in other countries or in previous times. So far, there has been almost no research on whether the reference point matters. Methods We take advantage of a comparative data set that, uniquely, allows us to ask this question. The Life in Transition Survey was conducted in four Southern European and 30 Central and Eastern European and Eurasian countries. We sought differences in the probability of good self-reported health among those using different reference groups, including own family, friends and neighbours, domestic elites, people living in other countries and those living prior to a major politico-economic transition. We used multivariable and multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regressions and estimated treatment effects via the regression adjustment of Poisson models. Results In most cases the choice of reference group did not matter but in some it did. Among men in Eastern European and Eurasian societies, those who compared themselves with their parents and their own families before the start of transition were less likely to report good health compared with those who did not compare their own economic situation with any specific reference group. Conclusions For some individuals, the choice of who to compare one’s situation with does seem to matter, pointing to an area for future investigation in research on psycho-social determinants of health.

• Jarosz, Ewa & Gugushvili, Alexi (2019). Parental education, health literacy and children’s adult body height. Journal of Biosocial Science. ISSN 0021-9320. 52(5), p. 696–718. doi: 10.1017/S0021932019000737.
• Gugushvili, Alexi & Reeves, Aaron (2019). How do perceived changes in inequality affect health? Health and Place. ISSN 1353-8292. 62, p. 1–9. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2019.102276.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2018). A multilevel study of validity of self-reported height. European Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1101-1262. 28(4), p. 264–165. Show summary

  Quality of self-reported data on individuals’ height has implications for social epidemiology and public health. Height along with weight is used to calculate individuals’ body mass index (BMI). Since the large share of data on height in demographic and health surveys are based on individuals’ declarations, any systemic errors in this measure may produce biased BMI estimates and reduce the effectiveness of anti-obesity interventions and public health campaigns.

• Gugushvili, Alexi; McKee, Martin; Azarova, Aytalina & Murphy, Michael (2018). Parental transmission of smoking among middle-aged and older populations in Russia and Belarus. International Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1661-8556. 63(3), p. 349–358. doi: 10.1007/s00038-017-1068-0. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi; Azarova, Aytalina; Irdam, Darja & Crenna-Jennings, Whitney (2018). Correlates of frequent alcohol consumption among middle-aged and older men and women in Russia: A multilevel analysis of the PrivMort retrospective cohort study. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. ISSN 0376-8716. 188, p. 39–44. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.03.038. Show summary

  Background A large proportion of premature deaths in Russia since the early 1990s, following the transition from communism, have been attributed to hazardous drinking. Little is known about the correlates of alcohol consumption. We present new data on the consumption of alcoholic beverages among middle-aged and older Russians and identify socio-demographic, socio-economic, and life-course correlates of frequent drinking. Methods Within the framework of the PrivMort project, conducted in 30 industrial towns in the European part of Russia, we acquired information on the frequency of drinking among 22,796 respondents and 57,907 of their surviving and deceased relatives. We fit three-level mixed-effects logistic regression models of frequent drinking in which respondents’ relatives, aged 40 and over, are nested in their families and towns. Results Deceased male relatives consumed alcohol significantly more often, while deceased female relatives consumed alcohol significantly less often than the respondents of corresponding gender. In a multivariable analysis, we found that individuals’ education, communication with family members, labour market status, history of unemployment, and occupational attainment are all significant correlates of frequent drinking in Russia. These associations are stronger among men rather than among women. Conclusion There are significant differences between frequency of drinking among surviving and deceased individuals and frequent drinking is associated with a wide array of individual socio-demographic, socio-economic, and life course factors that can partially explain high alcohol consumption in post-communist Russia.

• Kabachnik, Peter; Gugushvili, Alexi & Kirvalidze, Ana (2018). What about the Monument? Public Opinion and Contentious Politics in Stalin’s Homeland. Problems of Post-Communism. ISSN 1075-8216. 67(3), p. 264–276. doi: 10.1080/10758216.2018.1540276. Show summary

  The article uses mixed methods to explore the politics of memory surrounding the Stalin monument in Gori, Georgia, which was removed by the government in 2010. We employ bivariate and multivariate statistics to analyze people’s preferences in Georgia concerning the monument’s fate using socio-demographic, socio-economic, spatial, and political variables, identifying six factors as offering explanatory power: gender, age, place, socialization, education, and attitudes toward Vladimir Putin. We identify three main narratives in the qualitative data analysis: the desire to continue displaying the monument somewhere; the futility of monument battles; and the appeal to democratic principles in deciding these cases.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2017). Georgia’s Middle Class in the Making: Methods of Measurement, Trends, and Constraints. Caucasus Analytical Digest. ISSN 1867-9323. 95, p. 6–10. Show summary

  Since 2016, Georgia has been categorized as an upper middle-income economy by the World Bank. "e latter corresponds to the trends from the various micro-level data sets, which suggest that the middle class has been expanding in the recent years. However, what can be referred to as ‘the middle class’ in the Georgian context is still largely in the making, and this process remains vulnerable to endemic problems such as high inequality, low urbanization, agricultural underdevelopment, and the existence of rather large, vulnerable social groups. Political stability, geopolitics and international economic shocks all play a role in the prospects of the middle class in Georgia.

• Gugushvili, Alexi; Kabachnik, Peter & Kirvalidze, Ana (2017). Collective memory and reputational politics of national heroes and villains. Nationalities Papers. ISSN 0090-5992. 45(3), p. 464–484. doi: 10.1080/00905992.2016.1261821.
• Gugushvili, Alexi; Bukodi, Erzsebet & John H., Goldthorpe (2017). The Direct Effect of Social Origins on Social Mobility Chances: ‘Glass Floors’ and ‘Glass Ceilings’ in Britain. European Sociological Review. ISSN 0266-7215. 33(2), p. 305–316. doi: 10.1093/esr/jcx043. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2017). The effect of rapid privatisation on mortality in mono-industrial towns in post-Soviet Russia: a retrospective cohort study. The Lancet Public Health. ISSN 2468-2667. 2(5), p. e231–e238. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667%2817%2930072-5. Show summary

  Background Population-level data suggest that economic disruptions in the early 1990s increased working-age male mortality in post-Soviet countries. This study uses individual-level data, using an indirect estimation method, to test the hypothesis that fast privatisation increased mortality in Russia. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we surveyed surviving relatives of individuals who lived through the post-communist transition to retrieve demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of their parents, siblings, and male partners. The survey was done within the framework of the European Research Council (ERC) project PrivMort (The Impact of Privatization on the Mortality Crisis in Eastern Europe). We surveyed relatives in 20 mono-industrial towns in the European part of Russia (ie, the landmass to the west of the Urals). We compared ten fast-privatised and ten slow-privatised towns selected using propensity score matching. In the selected towns, population surveys were done in which respondents provided information about vital status, sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics and health-related behaviours of their parents, two eldest siblings (if eligible), and first husbands or long-term partners. We calculated indirect age-standardised mortality rates in fast and slow privatised towns and then, in multivariate analyses, calculated Poisson proportional incidence rate ratios to estimate the effect of rapid privatisation on all-cause mortality risk. Findings Between November, 2014, and March, 2015, 21 494 households were identified in 20 towns. Overall, 13 932 valid interviews were done (with information collected for 38 339 relatives [21 634 men and 16 705 women]). Fast privatisation was strongly associated with higher working-age male mortality rates both between 1992 and 1998 (age-standardised mortality ratio in men aged 20–69 years in fast vs slow privatised towns: 1·13, SMR 0·83, 95% CI 0·77–0·88 vs 0·73, 0·69–0·77, respectively) and from 1999 to 2006 (1·15, 0·91, 0·86–0·97 vs 0·79, 0·75–0·84). After adjusting for age, marital status, material deprivation history, smoking, drinking and socioeconomic status, working-age men in fast-privatised towns experienced 13% higher mortality than in slow-privatised towns (95% CI 1–26). Interpretation The rapid pace of privatisation was a significant factor in the marked increase in working-age male mortality in post-Soviet Russia. By providing compelling evidence in support of the health benefits of a slower pace of privatisation, this study can assist policy makers in making informed decisions about the speed and scope of government interventions.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2017). Change or continuity? Intergenerational social mobility and post-communist transition. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. ISSN 0276-5624. 52, p. 59–71. doi: 10.1016/j.rssm.2017.10.004. Show summary

  Regime change experienced in post-communist societies is of great significance for research in social stratification and mobility. Nonetheless, the existing literature does not provide a clear answer if cross-national differences in social mobility are determined by communist legacies or by the divergent paths these countries followed in their transition to the capitalist system. It is hypothesised that higher income inequality and an overall decline in material wellbeing would increase the importance of parental economic capital, whereas the relative role of parental cultural capital in offspring’s life chances would decline. For 24 societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, I find evidence on the decisive role of social origins, particularly parental education, in predicting individuals’ educational and occupational attainment. However, significant and systematic changes in intergenerational social mobility from pre- to post-transitional cohorts are not observed. The derived findings are robust to alternative specifications of social origins and destinations. Arguably, differences in intergenerational links between parents’ and offspring’s socio-economic status resulted from historical discrepancies in the communist period rather than the consequences of idiosyncratic developments in post-communist transition.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2017). Political democracy, economic liberalization, and macro-sociological models of intergenerational mobility. Social Science Research. ISSN 0049-089X. 66, p. 58–81. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.06.003. Show summary

  Building on the previously investigated macro-sociological models which analyze the consequences of economic development, income inequality, and international migration on social mobility, this article studies the specific contextual covariates of intergenerational reproduction of occupational status in post-communist societies. It is theorized that social mobility is higher in societies with democratic political regimes and less liberalized economies. The outlined hypotheses are tested by using micro- and macro-level datasets for 21 post-communist societies which are fitted into multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions. The derived findings suggest that factors specific to transition societies, conventional macro-level variables, and the legacy of the Soviet Union explain variation in intergenerational social mobility, but the results vary depending which birth cohorts survey participants belong to and whether or not they stem from advantaged or disadvantaged social origins. These findings are robust to various alternative data, sample, and method specifications.

• Gugushvili, Alexi; Kabachnik, Peter & Gilbreath, Aaron H. (2016). Cartographies of Stalin: Place, Scale, and Reputational Poli. Professional Geographer. ISSN 0033-0124. 68(3), p. 356–367. doi: 10.1080/00330124.2015.1089104. Show summary

  Abstract In this article we explore the spatial variation of support for former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in his home country, Georgia. This research contributes to the literature on reputational politics by highlighting the role of spatial, rather than only social, factors in the construction of public opinion about Stalin. We illustrate how geographic factors impact Georgians' perceptions of the Soviet dictator by examining various aspects of place at various scales—including distance to Gori, Stalin's birthplace, the history of urbanization, and economic and political indices. To this end we map attitudes toward the Soviet dictator and use a multilevel spatial regression technique to explain variance in support for Stalin across forty-seven districts of Georgia. This enables us to explore the impact of place on people's attitudes by examining (1) whether there are local and regional hotspots of Stalin admiration and, if so, (2) what the contextual explanations of these attitudes are.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2016). Intergenerational Social Mobility and Popular Explanations of Poverty: A Comparative Perspective. Social justice research. ISSN 0885-7466. 29(4), p. 402–428. doi: 10.1007/s11211-016-0275-9. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2016). Intergenerational objective and subjective mobility and attitudes towards income differences: evidence from transition societies. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy. ISSN 2169-9763. 32(3), p. 199–219. doi: 10.1080/21699763.2016.1206482.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2016). “Money can’t buy me land”: Foreign land ownership regime and public opinion in a transition society. Land Use Policy. ISSN 0264-8377. 142-153, p. 142–153. doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.03.032.
• Irdam, Darja; King, Lawrence P & Gugushvili, Alexi (2016). Mortality in Transition: Study Protocol of the PrivMort Project, a multilevel convenience cohort study. BMC Public Health. ISSN 1471-2458. 16(672), p. 1–8. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3249-9. Full text in Research Archive
• Gugushvili, Alexi & Kabachnik, Peter (2015). Stalin is dead, long live Stalin? Testing socialization, structural, ideological, nationalist, and gender hypotheses. Post-Soviet Affairs. ISSN 1060-586X. 31(1), p. 1–36. doi: 10.1080/1060586X.2014.940697. Show summary

  Recently, there has been a renewed focus on analyzing post-Soviet memory, including the rekindling of debate on contemporary perspectives of Josef Stalin. Most notably, the publication of The Stalin Puzzle has helped bring attention to the persistence of positive accounts and admiration, along with ambivalent and contested images, of the former dictator of the Soviet Union. Using survey data and multivariate statistical methods, we test five broad hypotheses – socialization, structural, ideological, nationalist, and gender – to ascertain what factors might shape people's attitudes toward Stalin in Georgia. Our analysis reveals that elderly, poor men from rural areas have the most positive associations of Stalin, whereas young, wealthier women from cities, those who are open to privatization, and perceive Russia as Georgia's biggest threat judge Stalin negatively. Counterintuitively, non-Georgian minorities show higher esteem for Stalin than Georgians. We envision that the effects of cohort replacement, economic development, and urbanization will decrease positive perceptions of Stalin in years to come.

• Kabachnik, Peter; Gugushvili, Alexi & Jishkariani, David (2015). A Personality Cult's Rise and Fall: Three Cities after Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" and the Stalin Monument that Never Was. REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. ISSN 2166-4307. 4(2), p. 309–326. Show summary

  reappeared. These battles, both symbolic and material, over monuments fuel and exemplify contemporary "memory wars." This article highlights the disparate meanings of three historical Stalin monuments that served as focal points for three major cases of mass demonstrations during Khrushchev's de-Stalinization campaign: Tbilisi, Budapest, and Prague. Next, drawing on newly found materials from Tbilisi's Central Committee Archive of the Communist Party of Georgia, this article discusses Bogdan Muradovich Kirakosian's never-realized project to build a massive Stalin monument that would have overlooked Tbilisi. Last is the analysis of survey data that captures individuals' attitudes towards Stalin for those born in Georgia before 1945 in order to surmise how such a grand monument to Stalin would have been received at the time.

• Kabachnik, Peter & Gugushvili, Alexi (2015). Unconditional love? Exploring hometown effect in Stalin's birthplace. Caucasus survey. ISSN 2376-1199. 3(2), p. 101–123. doi: 10.1080/23761199.2015.1044305. Show summary

  This article explores the impact of spatial location – place – on people's attitudes by examining whether support for Stalin is concentrated in his birthplace: Gori, Georgia. Using a variety of multivariate statistical methods, including propensity score-matching, we examine a recent survey indicating high levels of admiration for Stalin in his home country. We explore two main questions: First, is there a “hometown effect” – do people in Gori love Stalin unconditionally because they came from the same place? Second, is Gori so exceptional from the rest of Georgia? We conclude that there is indeed a stronger level of support for Stalin in Gori, but when shifting scales and looking within the category, we find that the highest admiration stems from the town's rural outskirts.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2015). Self-interest, Perceptions of Transition and Welfare Preferences in the New Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. Europe-Asia Studies. ISSN 0966-8136. 67(5), p. 718–746. doi: 10.1080/09668136.2015.1045451. Show summary

  This article studies public welfare preferences in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Generalised ordered logistic regression models and predicted probabilities are employed to analyse comparable attitudinal survey data. The results vary considerably among the countries, but age is the most important covariate of welfare preferences, followed by individuals’ socio-economic characteristics. The findings also indicate that popular perceptions of transition, notably in Ukraine and Moldova, are most strongly linked to preferences concerning the state's involvement in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor rather than to preferences regarding the main welfare state programmes such as pensions and healthcare.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2015). Economic Liberalization and Intergenerational Mobility in Occupational Status. Comparative Sociology. ISSN 1569-1322. 14(6), p. 790–820. doi: 10.1163/15691330-12341368. Show summary

  One of the most important components of post-socialist transition has been economic liberalization. This article inquiries into how the latter is associated with intergenerational mobility in occupational status. Using European Values Studies (evs) data from the nationally representative samples for a large number of post-socialist societies, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ebrd) index of economic liberalization, and multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions, I test the “meritocracy as functional imperative” perspective which implies that life chances depend on the efficiency considerations of liberalized economy. The derived results are robust to alternative model and variable specifications and suggest that economic liberalization explains cross-national differences in intergenerational status reproduction, and is better suited for macro-sociological models of mobility in occupational status than other conventional contextual explanations such as economic development and income inequality.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2014). The Georgian Dream of Pension Reforms. Caucasus Analytical Digest. ISSN 1867-9323. 60, p. 6–8. Show summary

  Although old-age benefits help to alleviate poverty in Georgia, the system does not satisfy its main stakeholders. Retirees believe that pensions are unfair and inadequate, while experts and governmental officials realize the growing burden of benefits for the country’s public finances. The past experience of pension (non) reforms suggest that changes are sensitive to the government’s capacity to reform, the fiscal health of the economy, political stability and the ideological preferences of the ruling elites. The transfer of power through parliamentary and presidential elections in 2012–2013 opened an opportunity for reforming the pension system based on broad public consensus and economic sustainability.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2013). Social Origin, Education and Occupation in Georgia. Caucasus Social Science Review. ISSN 2669-5359. 1(1), p. 1–26.
• Fairbanks Jr, CH & Gugushvili, Alexi (2013). A new chance for Georgian democracy. Journal of Democracy. ISSN 1045-5736. 24(1), p. 116–127. doi: 10.1353/jod.2013.0002. Show summary

  Something amazing happened in Georgia’s 1 October 2012 parliamentary elections. The government lost and it gave up power, aside from the now-weakened presidency that it will hold for another year. A new coalition known as Georgian Dream ran under the leadership of Georgia’s richest man, the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, and won 85 seats in the unicameral, 150-member Parliament. Georgia’s post-Soviet background and circumstances make the 2012 opposition win and subsequent orderly handover of power truly remarkable. Indeed, among the “competitive authoritarian” regimes found in what used to be the USSR, it is nearly unheard of. Georgia is lucky to be getting a fourth chance at democracy, after the opportunities under Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1990–92), Eduard Shevardnadze (1992–2003), and Saakashvili faded. But this chance remains a fragile one.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2011). Understanding Poverty in Georgia. Caucasus Analytical Digest. ISSN 1867-9323. 34, p. 15–18.
• Gugushvili, Alexi (2010). Towards a Welfare Research Framework in the Countries of Eastern Partnership Initiative. European Journal of East Asian Studies. ISSN 1568-0584. 3(1), p. 349–379. Show summary

  The Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative is a European Union (EU) project aiming to advance socioeconomic development in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. To date, virtually no research has been done on comparative welfare systems in these countries. This paper aims to narrow this gap. It is argued here that the comparative welfare state approach for the Central and Eastern European and Baltic Post-Communist countries is not appropriate for the selected region, since weak democratic institutions and economic underperformance contradict the primary foundations of the welfare state. The paper instead considers a welfare regime paradigm developed for less advanced nations. The empirical part of the study is based on the hierarchical and kmeans clustering method to analyse different welfare outcome and welfare effort indicators and on binomial logistic regression technique to analyse public attitudes towards welfare. The results of the study indicate that the welfare outcomes in EaP countries can be clustered into three distinct groups, but that using conventional welfare state variables, such as the total government outlay on welfare programmes, and welfare attitudes cannot explain the systematic determinants of varying welfare performance among the countries. It appears that employing the welfare regime framework, which more vividly takes into account the domestic and international activities of state, market and household, can increase the robustness of welfare research of the strategies employed by EaP countries to address their social risks. Nevertheless, the problems with data availability and reliability might restrict the comparative research framework to only a few specific social welfare dimensions.

• Gugushvili, Alexi (2009). Political Economy of Old-age Pension Reforms in Georgia. Caucasian Review of International Affairs (CRIA). ISSN 1865-6773. 3(4), p. 371–386 . Show summary

  The paper examines the factors that played a major role in development of the old-age pension system in Georgia. Based on data collected from 1991-2009, this analysis centers on the system’s patterns of development and identifies four main attempts to reform the old-age pension system. Economic performance, demographic aging, domestic political constellations, and external influence are traditionally thought to be responsible for the pension system reforms. Qualitative data analyses and in-depth interviews have been used to test these explanations. This analysis did not confirm the hypotheses, but it revealed that fiscal constraints and international technical assistance were the main factors behind reforms during the first two chronological attempts to change the system. Political factors and liberal economic ideology influenced the patterns of old-age pension policy development from 2004–2008, while the negative outcomes of the Russian-Georgian War and World Financial Crisis are currently the major obstacles for comprehensive pension reforms. The limitations of this study suggest that in order to clarify the exact nature of old-age pension system, shorter time periods and separate reform initiatives should be investigated.

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• Gugushvili, Alexi (2012). The (non) Reform of the Georgian Pension system, 1991-2011: A Brief History and Update . Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Show summary

  This study reviews the factors that played a major role in the development of the old-age pension system in Georgia, 1991-2009 and identifies three main stages in this process. Fiscal constraints and international technical assistance were the main factors behind reform initiatives undertaken before 2003 and during the first attempts to change the system. Political factors and liberal economic ideology influenced the patterns of pension policy development in the period 2004–2008, while the negative economic outcomes surrounding the Russian-Georgian War and Global Financial Crisis, along with decreasing political legitimacy, are thought to be major obstacles for comprehensive pension reform at present. The main lesson drawn by this study concerning the post 2012–2013 election-cycle pension initiatives is that decisive steps should be taken based on hard evidence, rather than ideological conviction.

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