The paper investigates the relationships between economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. GDP growth represents the main economic dimension, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and renewable energy consumption the environmental dimension, and corruption the social dimension of sustainable development. The investigation of these relationships is based on the concept of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis about the non-linear relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution. The authors used the panel data of EU countries and Ukraine for 2000–2016 years from the Eurostat database. The obtained results confirmed the Environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for the EU and Ukraine. All the indicators were statistically significant at 1% and 5% levels. The findings proved that increasing renewable energy (RE) by 1% led to a decline of GHG in the interval (0.166103, 0.220551), and аn increase of the Control of Corruption Index by 1% provoked a decline of GHG by 0.88%. The conducted study enabled the authors to conclude that Ukraine needs to increase the GDP level per capita given the economy diversification and via the introduction of more effective and “clean” production technologies.

/pdf/sustainable-economic-development-and-greenhouse-gas-opwoy8av19.pdf

Sustainable economic development and greenhouse gas emissions: the dynamic impact of renewable energy consumption, GDP, and corruption

The paper analyses the linkages between GDP per capita, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and renewable energy (RE) in the total final energy consumption and green investments (PICE) which are measured as private investments, jobs, and gross value added related to circular economy sectors. The object of the analysis is the EU countries during the 2008-2016 period (crisis and post-crisis period). In the paper, data from the following databases was used: the Eurostat, the World Data Bank, and the European Environmental Agency. For addressing the linkages between the aforementioned indicators, the following methods were applied: panel unit root test, Pedroni panel cointegration tests, and the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) panel cointegration techniques. The findings show that FMOLS and DOLS demonstrate the same results as GHG, PICE, RE influence on GDP of the EU countries. The findings prove there is linking between gross domestic product per capita, greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy in the total final energy consumption and green investments. The findings also show that green investment (PICE) could provoke the growth of GDP per capita by 6.4%, the decline of GHG by 3.08%, and the increase of renewable energy in the total final energy consumption by 5.6%.

/pdf/assessment-of-green-investments-impact-on-sustainable-3c0w3btza8.pdf

Assessment of Green Investments’ Impact on Sustainable Development: Linking Gross Domestic Product Per Capita, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Renewable Energy

The paper is devoted to identifying the level of social safety of society, taking into account the indicators of shadow economy, and developing its strategic scenarios as a component of sustainable development of Ukraine by 2030. The authors used the modern methods of normalisation, threshold vector determination, and dynamic weight coefficients in order to identify the level of social safety of society. The authors developed the structure and a list of indicators considering three components of social safety: The standard of living, the demographic component, and the quality of life. This method allows determining the list and severity of threats, comparing the dynamics of integral indices with integral thresholds in one scale, identifying the state of security, and defining strategic goals and strategies. The suggested approach is universal and can be used by any country, region, economic activity, or business to develop evidence-based medium-to-long-term sustainable development scenarios.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/8953/pdf

Social Safety of Society for Developing Countries to Meet Sustainable Development Standards: Indicators, Level, Strategic Benchmarks (with Calculations Based on the Case Study of Ukraine)

Digitalization and virtualization in the era of the Industry 4.0 adjust the nature of finance and interaction between market participants. Many financial services are transferred to the virtual plane allowing the development of alternative finance – raising funds and carrying out borrowings through online platforms. Based on the analysis of the influence of factors on the alternative finance development, the paper formulates five hypotheses on the dependence of the amount of financial resources attracted through online platforms on the quantitative characteristics of the relevant factors. The goal is to study the factors of online financing service as an alternative to traditional financial intermediaries (including banks) using the method of correlation analysis. As the quantitative parameters of each factor, the use of commonly accepted indices and individual relative indicators is proposed. The results of the study showed 1) the significant impact of the country's economic development on the degree of the alternative finance development; 2) the strong direct influence of financial inclusion and the level of innovation of the country on the volume of alternative finance; 3) the lack of direct influence of information technology and the absence of the regulatory influence of the state on the development of the alternative finance market.

The influence of industry 4.0 on financial services: Determinants of alternative finance development

DOI: 10.14254/2071789X.2020/13-1/17 ABSTRACT. An institutional quality convergence is always a relevant subject matter since institutional quality is considered to be a vital factor for economic development. The question regarding the convergence of social parameters into development is especially acute when choosing a social policy direction and the related instruments. This paper proposes a methodology to calculate the institutional development gap of social sector (IDGSS) in its three measures: social capital development, social infrastructure development, social security system development. IDGSS is calculated here for 20 countries. The estimation demonstrates how social development parameters (social capital, social infrastructure and social security) depends on a country’s economic development level. Besides, we show how IDGSS depends on noneconomic factors, including the level of basic institutions’ development, the degree of inequality in the distribution of income and poverty.

https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/bitstream/123456789/80498/1/Vasilyeva_Bilan_Bagmet_Seliga.pdf

Institutional development gap in the social sector: Cross-country analysis

The main goal of the article is to analyze the role and influence of economic freedom on macroeconomic stability. For this purpose, the authors used the integrated index of economic freedom, calculated by the Heritage Foundation and Democracy Index. It is noted that this index indicator was calculated by the experts from the World Bank using the index of voice and accountability. In the paper, the authors used the multinational panel dataset for 11 countries of the EU for the purpose of checking the correlation between economic freedom, democracy and macroeconomic stability. It should be highlighted that the abovementioned 11 countries are related by the fluctuation of economic growth during the transformation process (1996–2016) from communist party to the democracy and political pluralism. In addition, the authors proposed to add the indicators of political stability and trade openness, which allowed to take into account implementation of flexible macroeconomic instruments, including monetary policy, which towards increasing the economic growth, employment and financial development of the countries. The findings are directed received using the regression equation with fixed and random effects showed the high level of correspondence of the model used with the original observations. Despite the chosen approach to estimate the macroeconomic stability, the findings showed that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of economic freedom and democracy on macroeconomic stability.

/pdf/economic-freedom-and-democracy-determinant-factors-in-2qxb8zr4cl.pdf

Economic freedom and democracy: determinant factors in increasing macroeconomic stability

The paper analyses the drivers of shadow economy within the transition economies. It was found that an increase in GDP per capita in a selected group of transition economies by 10% decreases the shadow economy levels by 1.2%; increase in foreign direct investment by 10% shrinks the shadow economy sector by 0.5%; improvements in energy efficiency by 10% are correlated with 2% shadow economy growth. It was also found that an increase in tax level by 10% increases the shadow economy by 1%. The relevant policy implication for transition economies is to stimulate the economic growth supplemented by increase in efficiency of the tax bodies. The separate policy measure for the transition economies is be to reform the structure of the tax system in the direction of higher portion of indirect taxes. The findings suggest that an increase in shadow economy reduces the life expectancy in the selected transition economies.

Determinants of shadow economy in transition countries: economic and environmental aspects

Life satisfaction and digital transformation of society evidence from developed economies

Life satisfaction is the most important social indicator of life quality. 33 European countries and data for them for 2016-2018 were selected. Four regressions with set variables that impact life satisfaction are constructed using the general least square techniques with random effects. It is found that if mean and median income increases by 10,000 euro, the life satisfaction increases by 0.42 points. However, when the income per capita starts to be bigger than 59,177, the life satisfaction levels decrease. The study proved the inverted U-shape relations between economic growth and life satisfaction. After some critical points in the population's well-being, other factors are needed to improve life satisfaction. It is found that when the employment rate increases by 10%, life satisfaction increases by 0.7. If arrears increase by 10%, life satisfaction decreases by 0.36 (it is more pleasant to leave in smaller states). If human resources in science and technology increase by 10%, life satisfaction increases by 0.5, proving that all new advances lead to technological progress and influence the quality and standard of living. 

Victoria Kubatko

Papers

Economic freedom and democracy: determinant factors in increasing macroeconomic stability

Determinants of shadow economy in transition countries: economic and environmental aspects

Life satisfaction and digital transformation of society evidence from developed economies

Life satisfaction and digital transformation of society evidence from European economies