Tetiana Hryhorash

The timeliness of the research is conditioned by the need to analyze the development of small business as an indicator of the development of the middle class, which characterizes the socio-economic level of the country in general and contributes to strengthening its financial situation. The article contains the analysis of the small business development and its influence on the formation of local budget revenues in Ukraine. Based on the correlation and regression analysis, the statistical series of the sales volume of small business was aligned, taking into account changes in the legislation for the criteria for the small business definition in 2008 and in 2012. The correlation between the sales volume of the small business and the local budget revenues of Ukraine is analyzed. In order to evaluate the certainty of the small business development trends and its impact on local budget revenues, the same analysis was done on the basis of the indicators calculated in the currency equivalent.

The article presents a comparative analysis of state funding of higher education as a factor of its effectiveness in European countries. The analysis is conducted on the example of countries where the share of state budget expenditures on education no less than 11%.
The assumption that education is the main factor in the formation of a responsible citizens capable to provide the job themselves, and to provide qualified professionals for the country, that means to promote economic and cultural growth, is taken as a basis of the article.
The structure of state expenditures on education in general and the amount of higher education funding in countries under consideration is analyzed.
The correlation between the amount of expenditures on higher education and the indicators of the quality index of the higher education system QS World University Rankings is analyzed. Also the correlation analysis between other indexes, that characterize the general level of human development and quality of business as a result of public investment in training of highly qualified specialists, is done.

Higher education institutions train professional and scientific personnel. Therefore, the quality of higher education and its funding are vital for training highly qualified specialists. This study analyzes the annual volume of expenses (investments) per student in groups of countries, divided according to their socio-economic development, and competitiveness of higher education. The division of countries into groups is based on simultaneous compliance with the criteria for the quality of higher education and the level of social and economic development. The Ward’s clustering method was applied. The analysis was conducted based on data from 32 OECD countries and partner countries. The paper found a significant direct correlation between the level of competitiveness of higher education and the amount of its funding per student (R = 0.895). At the same time, a significant direct correlation was revealed between the level of competitiveness of higher education and the human development index (R = 0.787) and the global competitiveness index (R = 0.888). Finally, a significant direct correlation between the amount of expenditures and the level of competitiveness of higher education was found only in the cluster with the highest indicators of socio-economic development (Rs = 0.707). In other clusters, the correlation is weak or weakly inverse.