Svitlana Kachula

At the present stage of economic development Ukrainian public sector is faced with multiple new and complex challenges. In order to implement strategic reforms in the public financial management, the public authorities were given the opportunity to use external sources of finance for the implementation of relevant innovative projects and programs. Accordingly, Ukraine assumes certain international obligations towards the organizational and institutional aspects, as well as transparent and effective targeted use of financial resources. This study examined the main issues of projects and programs at each stage of the project cycle management. The main purpose of this paper is to find the best basic areas for further cooperation between Ukraine and the EU on the implementation of project management in the context of the need to modernize the budget management system.
Methodological and theoretical basis of the research consists of the works of foreign and Ukrainian scholars that allowed realizing conceptual integrity of the study. Methods of generalization and comparison allowed to assess the existing projects of modernization of public financial management financed by international organizations. The authors defined the possible forms of financing of government innovative projects and programs in Ukraine. For this purpose, methods of analysis and synthesis were used.
As a result, it is recommended to follow the directions of further cooperation between Ukraine and the EU on the development of project management along with performance-based budgeting.

The purpose of the paper is to determine the causal relationship between financial and investment indicators and the level of innovation development in GII leading countries and Ukraine. For a sample of 10 leaders in GII-2022 and Ukraine for 2011–2020, a correlation analysis was conducted based on the following indicators: the value of GII, foreign direct investment (net inflows), domestic credit to the private sector, ease of getting credit, protecting minority investors, and real interest rate. A positive relationship (with moderate/high strength) between innovation development and foreign direct investment has been proven in 7 out of 11 countries with a time lag of 0-2 years; domestic credit to the private sector – in 6 countries (lag of 0-3 years); and protecting minority investors – in 9 countries (lag of 0-2 years). For other indicators, the relationship is negative. Through VAR-modelling and Granger test, it is proven that the change in the value of foreign direct investment causes the change in the value of GII in 6 countries (bidirectional causality exists only in Ukraine); domestic credit to the private sector – in 6 countries, protecting minority investors and real interest rate – in 2 countries, and ease of getting credit – only in Switzerland. The results show that foreign direct investment and domestic credit to the private sector are the reasons for increasing the level of innovation development and have potentially the highest influence. In Ukraine, compared to GII leaders, only the factor of foreign direct investment is identified as a cause of innovation development.

With the deepening of global financial and economic instability, the search for ways to increase fiscal sustainability becomes relevant in the crisis regulation system. This problem is compounded by the emergence of new global challenges, including the COVID pandemic. Timely and complex analysis of the local budget financial sustainability allows one to comprehensively assess financial and economic risks, identify social and other problems, consider planning deficiencies and, on this basis, form a sound and effective regional budget policy. The purpose of the study is to summarize theoretical and practical principles of assessing the financial sustainability of local budgets and to outline the directions for its improvement in Ukraine considering international practices.
The study revealed the lack of a unified system for assessing the financial sustainability of local budgets in Ukraine. On the basis of generalization of theoretical and methodological approaches, a system of indicators for estimating the financial sustainability of local budgets has been identified. The indicators were grouped and calculated. Based on the study of practical experience, measures have been specified that would contribute to a systematic approach to assessing the financial sustainability of local budgets in Ukraine.
It was concluded that a systematic assessment of the financial sustainability of local budgets is a prerequisite for making informed management decisions about necessary adjustments to the budget, improving the quality of budget planning and the effectiveness of budget policy.

One of the effective ways to increase the level of population coverage with medical services is health insurance. The paper aims to determine what type of health insurance (compulsory, social, or voluntary) has the greatest impact on a country’s ability to provide large-scale and timely medical services to citizens, as measured by the number of unmet needs for medical examination, treatable and preventable mortality. The control variables included a country’s population size, the level of economic well-being, and the scale of the public health system (number of doctors and hospital beds) based on EUROSTAT data for all 27 EU countries in 2012–2021. Modelling (regression models of panel data with fixed and random effects in STATA 18, Wald test, Hausman test, Breusch and Pagan test) proved that only one of three researched types of insurance – voluntary health insurance – positively influences a country’s ability to provide large-scale and timely medical services to citizens: an increase in its volume by 1% leads to a decrease in unmet needs in medical examination on average across all EU countries by 0.26%, treatable mortality rate by 0.08%, preventive mortality rate by 0.27%. The influence of the other two types – compulsory and social – was not confirmed (received regression coefficients for these variables are not statistically significant). This emphasizes the importance of citizens’ conscious attitude to their health (due to the increase in voluntary health insurance) both in strengthening public health and in ensuring faster and better access to medical services.

Environmental taxes ensure sustainable development, but their fiscal and environmental effectiveness differs for countries with different socio-economic characteristics. This study aims to compare the impact of environmental tax revenues on economy’s decarbonization (measured through carbon productivity – the ratio of GDP to carbon dioxide emissions) in different countries, considering their green technologies development and carbon emissions. The paper analyzed OECD and World Bank statistical data for 38 OECD countries for 2002–2021 using linear panel regression models with fixed and random effects (using Hausman test and STATA 18). To identify explicit and latent patterns of this influence, which are common to certain countries, this analysis did not consider each country separately but targeted clusters, distinguished by Ward and Sturges methods based on the effective tax rate on carbon emissions, total environmental tax revenues, total carbon emissions, and carbon productivity. The positive influence of environmental tax revenues on the economy’s decarbonization level has been confirmed for 29 countries (four from six clusters). The effect is the largest for the USA (an increase in tax revenues by 1% leads to an increase in carbon productivity by 0.9% on average) and the smallest – for the cluster including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and the Great Britain (increase – 0.1%). The negative impact was confirmed for nine countries (two from six clusters): Denmark, Finland, Israel, Latvia, and Sweden (decrease – 0.3%) and Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Slovenia (decrease – 0.21%).

The state policy of Ukraine aims to promote sustainable economic growth and improve its quality through economic activity, particularly through the optimization of the tax system, which is particularly relevant both during the period of martial law in Ukraine and the post-war recovery. The purpose of the study is to assess the formation and implementation of the state tax policy to activate the internal factors of economic growth in Ukraine under martial law. The study of tax policy in Ukraine and EU countries has shown that the EU countries are characterized by a consistent and transparent tax policy that stimulates investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship to activate internal factors of economic growth. The paper uses fiscal analysis based on the Cobb-Douglas production-institutional function; its main concept is the mutual location of the Laffer points of the first and second types and the actual level of the tax burden. The results show a noticeable adjustment of the real fiscal climate in Ukraine in line with changes in threshold fiscal standards. Considering martial law in Ukraine and the need for the state’s ability to post-war recovery, the study suggests changing the rates of specific taxes, after which it is necessary to make a transition from private fiscal instruments with inherent rate values to the aggregate fiscal burden.