Issue #1 (Volume 8 2019)

Strengthening financial and economic stability in certain countries of the world requires the modification of tools for assessing the imbalances in the flow of financial resources that arise and spread as a result of the economy financialization and their consequences for the functioning of markets, especially investment ones. The purpose of the study is to develop a methodological approach to identifying the dependencies between financial resources imbalances resulting from financialization and investment flows. The following research methods were used: science-based abstraction, analysis and synthesis, economic and mathematical methods (to identify the dependencies between the imbalances in the movement of financial resources and investment flows in the economy); comparison and analogy (to study the world experience in identifying the links between financialization and investment flows in the economy). The aspects of the influence of imbalances in financial resources movement as a result of the economy financialization on investment flows are systematized. Various consequences of these imbalances for the functioning of the investment market are determined. The algorithm of identification of special aspects of investment flows influenced by financial resources imbalances was modified. The hypothesis of the strong correlation between the dynamics of foreign direct investment in the Eastern European countries and the level of imbalances in the flow of financial resources has been confirmed. The hypothesis of the significant influence of financialization processes on investment activity in the real sector of the economy, including infrastructure investments, has been refuted. It has been established that imbalances in the flow of financial resources as a result of financialization do not contribute to the development of investment markets of Eastern European countries, and only intensify disparities by directing foreign direct investment in the financial sectors of these countries and increasing the volatility of their market conditions.
It has been determined that the approach to identifying the dependencies between financial resources imbalances as a result of financialization and investment flows in Eastern European economies has allowed to substantiate the impact of such imbalances on investment amounts and on the capital formation dynamics.

In India, the urban local bodies do not have decentralization in various functions. Therefore, municipal corporations find various issues in functioning and revenue generation. It has resulted into either shortfall or low quality infrastructure services to people. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation is developed as modern municipal corporation. Municipal corporation invested financial resources in development for civic infrastructure. Therefore, population, industries, educational institutions, markets, transport and other facilities are expanding very fast. The ordinary least square regression results shows that the municipal corporation has positive co-relation with revenue receipts from LBT, property tax and town planning. The revenue expenditure is positively co-related with municipal estate, public health and hospitals, primary and secondary education. The engineering work for poor is negatively correlated with revenue expenditure. The capital receipts are positively co-related with fire brigade, auditorium, sports and cultural programs and security deposits and water supply. The capital expenditure is positively co-related to women and child welfare schemes, primary education, environment monitoring. It is negatively co-related with dumping grounds. The municipal corporation must raise funds from capital market through municipal bonds. More investment must be made in civic infrastructure. Similarly, corporation must spend more funds on poor, welfare of women and children. Municipal corporation must monitor and protect environment. It must give more priorities for processing of solid and e-waste, protect local culture, primary and secondary education, health care for all and technology in provision of civic services. It must develop human resource and create best place to live in metropolitan region.

The article focuses on the development of scientific and methodological approach to determining the level of creation and use of financial capacity to identify current trends of its transformation and perspective directions for development. The research urgency is due to the need to ensure high level of national security, ineffective use of the existing financial capacity of the state, disputability of scientific approaches to identifying its components and the need to choose the vector for the state’s further development. This requires additional research methodological aspects aimed at obtaining objective and well-founded assessment of the financial capacity level.
The methodological approach proposed involves comparing the actual rated values of creation and use of the authorities’ financial resources (the ratio of the deficit/surplus of the state budget to GDP, the level of GDP redistribution through the consolidated budget, the ratio of the government and government-guaranteed debt to GDP and gross international reserves of Ukraine in the months of imports), financial resources of business entities (the level of listing companies capitalization, the ratio of non-performing loans to total gross loans, credit interest rate, companies’ ROA) and the financial resources of households (the share of cash income in total household resources, the ratio of the average amount of old-age pension to the average monthly nominal wage, the share of spending on food and non-alcoholic beverages in total household spending) with their recommended limits and the establishing a scoring making it possible to form an integral indicator that reflects the level of creation and use of the state’s financial capacity. The methodological approach has been tested using Ukraine as an example. This has made it possible to identify the negative tendencies of the creation and use of Ukraine’s financial capacity (the state budget imbalance, significant debt burden on the budget, high interest rates, significant share of household expenditure on consumption). Based on the results, perspectives for development of the state’s financial capacity are proposed.

This paper is devoted to the comparing stock portfolios of the largest conventional and responsible Ukrainian companies as the basis for substantiating the structure of an optimal investment portfolio in the current conditions of development of the financial market of Ukraine. The empirical basis of the research was the data of quotations of shares of 6 most liquid conventional and 6 responsible companies in the Ukrainian and Warsaw exchanges. The methodological basis of calculations was the classic Markowitz portfolio optimization model. The key hypothesis of the research was to check that the conventional investment portfolios of Ukrainian companies outperform the responsible investment portfolios by their parameters (return, risk). This hypothesis was rejected. The obtained results have not only theoretical significance – both the rationale for the threat of responsible investment in Ukraine and the applied value for market participants in terms of investment decisions making, taking into consideration the ESG criteria, and the formation of investment portfolios from shares of the responsible companies, the key parameters of which exceed the conventional portfolios.

The present study investigates the Norwegian maritime industry in terms of its economic activity during the period 2001–2018. The purpose of the study is to determine the financial state and to conduct the cluster analysis of the companies which belong to the Blue Maritime Cluster of Møre and Romsdal County.
The paper presents a structural analysis of key financial indicators of the maritime industry within four major segments: shipping companies, shipyards, ship equipment manufactures, and maritime design and service providers. The analysis sheds light on the impact of the 2015–2017 offshore crisis on the Norwegian maritime cluster activity, which makes up the essential components of the maritime industry.
The author suggests using Harrington’s desirability function to measure the firms’ financial state of two main segments (shipping companies and shipyards) that belong to the Blue Maritime Cluster of the Norwegian North-Western coast, which remains the most important area in Norway for shipbuilding activities. The obtained results reveal that during the analyzed period (2001–2018), companies had a satisfactory level of financial sustainability (with the peak in 2002 for shipping firms and in 2011 for shipyards). Nevertheless, there were several fluctuations and the most significant troughs were fixed after 2014. Moreover, it was defined that government policy plays an important role in an increase in the productivity, competitiveness of the maritime industry and supports more environmentally friendly shipbuilding.

Transparency in public and local finance is one of the most important factors in building a democratic society with high level of public confidence in the government. Democratic shifts in a country will only take place if citizens perceive the country’s government and local self-government as fully transparent and controlled by them. Citizens will be able to support and cooperate with the government if it informs them of all public activities: decision-making, financial reporting, planning, local budget expenditures, etc. Transparency in the formation and use of local financial resources is the most sensitive issue.
Local finance transparency has been studied from the perspective of 21 online portals of local authorities from four Ukrainian regions, geographically remote in the context of two main blocks, namely, the state of public procurement and the budget process. The portals of Lviv, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Mykolaiv administrative centers and the city of Kyiv were identified in each region (oblast), and in each oblast, four cities with the district status, which are the largest by population, were identified. Significant discrepancies in local finance transparency have been identified, as portals of regional centers and a small number of districts have high levels of transparency. The vast majority have low transparency in local finances. In addition, the level of community involvement in the regional development problems through social networks was analyzed. The population of small cities was found to be more active. Most local governments should pay attention to the low level of portals in terms of making them user-friendly.

The introduction of fiscal policy transparency practices in the contemporary local financial management system is one of the prerequisites for increasing the socio-economic development of regions. Creating a transparent budget environment contributes to a faster and more effective solution to the region’s current problems. The lack of a sufficient level of budgetary transparency is a consequence of poor public interest consideration, which impedes the people’s realization of their own democratic aspirations and freedoms.
The article is aimed at developing scientific and methodological approach to assessing the state of social and economic development of a region and comparing the estimates with the regions’ transparency levels for 2016–2018. Integral assessment of socio-economic development consists of four stages. It has been found out that the level of socio-economic development of regions does not correlate with the transparency level of regional policy. Public finance transparency assessment of Sumy city has shown that its population needs a higher level of information disclosure, use of the latest information channels, and creation of convenient forms of involvement in the budget process. The transparency evaluation results in the areas of budgeting, public procurement, disposal of property of the territorial community, etc. have been investigated. Besides, directions for improving Sumy local authorities’ information policy are proposed to increase its transparency.

Nowadays, the investment flows define the prospects of development of the economic system of any level, as they give the innovative opportunities and are the instrument of compliance in the financial and legal field. Taking into account the significant resource potential of the Ukraine, it is important to study the industries-catalysts, able to mobilize the financial resources, to activate the development of infrastructure and to become an impetus for the development of the specific location and the regions as a whole, which a priori stimulates meeting the social needs. This study aims to analyze the parameters of social effectiveness of investments in the hospitality business, which creates the multiplicative effect in the territories’ development systems, involving many related industries, which are the donors for territorial communities financing, in the creation of the concept-product. As a weighty proportion in the territorial community’s GDP, the usefulness of the investments in the hospitality was analyzed through the lens of sociality, which nowadays acquires the signs of non-material asset in implementing the projects, as it ensures the communicative and information interaction, harmonizes the relationship between the investors, recipients of investments, local territorial community, and society.

Effective system of local self-government is a key to the successful development of a democratic state. It should be aimed at ensuring the effective performance of functions by the authorities, creating environment for obtaining quality services by citizens, and introducing and expanding the system of local taxes.
Local taxes make the financial basis for the activities of local self-government bodies. However, nowadays, the lack of their volume and revenue instability are considered as a matter of national concern. Funding of state delegated powers, which is mainly due to transfer payments, is characterized by the delayed receipt of revenues and the lack of revenue in terms of targets, thereby creating problems with financing from local budgets.
The article investigates the essentials of local taxation in the system of local budgets in Ukraine. It also summarizes methodological approaches to determining the nature of local taxes, clarifies their fiscal role in the local tax system and local budgets, and analyzes the existing practice of formation and implementation of local taxes in local budget revenues. Besides, prospective lines of improvement of the local taxation system are investigated and recommendations for its development are elaborated. Also, the subject to reform of the system of tax and budgetary relations was substantiated; changes in some administration mechanisms, the list expansion due to environmental fees and strengthened control over the unshadowing of small and medium businesses were offered.

The article is devoted to studying the impact of different social and economic indicators on defining the population’s tariff burden for housing and utilities services. The article analyzes the housing and utilities services provision system in Ukraine. It is noted that the majority of such companies are communally owned. The effect of different factors on defining the population’s tariff burden was found. The impact was studied, and the need for considering the organizational, economically oriented, and social factors when defining the housing and utilities services tariffs was substantiated. The housing and utilities services tariff policy system, the procedure of the tariffs’ structure developing, which is formed from economically reasonable costs of service provider’s operating and financial activity (full target prime cost) and part of income, were studied. The financial relationships between the housing and utilities companies with budgets of different levels, first of all with local budgets, and state target funds; financial and credit institutions, and insurance companies, etc. were analyzed.

The paper explores theoretical and practical aspects of forecasting the government debt in Ukraine. A visual analysis of changes in the amount of government debt was conducted, which has made it possible to conclude about the deepening of the debt crisis in the country. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) is considered as the basic forecasting model; besides, the model work and its diagnostics are estimated. The EViews software package illustrates the procedure for forecasting the Ukrainian government debt for the ARIMA model: the series for stationarity was tested, the time series of monthly government debt was converted into stationary by making a number of transformations and determining model parameters; as a result, the most optimal specification for the ARIMA model was chosen.
Based on the simulated time series, it is concluded that ARIMA tools can be used to predict the government debt values.