Arsen Hayriyan

The article offers an investigation of the level of the shadow economy in Ukraine in the period 2007–2016, the structure of the shadow (“grey”) economy in the sectoral section, Ukraine’s place in world rankings in terms of economic freedom, corruption, favorable business conditions, and competitiveness. The main reasons of high level of shadow sector of the national economy are considered, and several measures regarding the reduction of the shadow economy in Ukraine and improvement of its economic situation are presented.

FinTech startups and services are one of the most dynamic segments of the modern economy. New financial technologies have already attracted many investors and form millions of budgets. Changing the traditional financial services concept, FinTech companies formed a new niche within the financial services market, the dynamic development of which determines the relevance of the development and implementation of an effective regulatory and oversight system.
The purpose of the article is to develop an economic and mathematical model for forecasting the development of the FinTech market on the example of Ukraine. In order to study the development of the FinTech industry, a multiple regression model was presented. The model describes the dependence of the total investment value of FinTech from venture investments in financial technology, venture investments in other technologies and venture investments in online lending. Based on this model, the effect of attracting investments with new FinTech projects on the total volume of investments in the industry was clarified. According to the model, with a change in investments in FinTech by 1%, the total rate of venture investments decreases by 0.03, funds in new projects of other companies grow by 0.05, and venture investments in online lending increase by 0.89. According to the analysis of regulatory legislation in the foreign countries of the FinTech services sphere, it was found that the regulation of most of the risks associated with the development of FinTech services falls within the competence of different supervisory authorities, requiring cross-sectoral cooperation between public institutions.

In the context of countries integration into the world economic space, agricultural sector is one of the priorities and strategically important sectors of the national economy. Development of instruments aimed to increase investment potential of this sector is therefore an important component of the country’s economy growth. The article proposes a science-based model of the impact of the agricultural sector on the economic development level of countries trying to move towards European integration.
It was found that the employment rate (+58.4) has the largest influence on the rate of GDP change in the studied group of countries (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia). The impact of the gross value added of the manufacturing sector on its economic growth is positive (+44.6). The negative foreign direct investment ratio in the model (–40.3) may be due to the fact that the indicator in the studied countries is still largely influenced by the intervention of the state mechanism, significant uncertainty and risk, which is a deterrent to the overall economic development. An important result of the study was that foreign direct investment had a negative impact on economic growth in developing countries. Further development of the investment potential of a country’s agricultural sector provides for a radical acceleration of scientific and technological progress and, on this basis, a reduction in the cost of a unit of agricultural products and food and an increase in their competitiveness in the domestic and world markets.