COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DYNAMICS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS OF CHERKASY OBLAST AND NEIGHBORING REGIONS IN 2019–2021
Authors:   Cherkasy State Business College, Ukraine, Kryvoruchko Mykhailo 
Published: May 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic caused dramatic changes in the world economy, including economy of Ukraine. The aftermath of coronavirus crisis had a significant impact not only on Ukrainian economy as a whole, but also on its regional development. Dysfunction of economic development due to coronavirus crisis has been defined as viral dysfunction which implies disorder of relatively stable economic relations that had been built in the past. The above-mentioned determines importance and relevance of research on the viral dysfunction impact on Ukrainian economy on national and regional levels, which is the object of study of the research work held by Cherkasy State Business College (Ukraine), titled "The impact and consequences of viral dysfunction on the institutional and socio-economic development of the region (on the example of Cherkasy region)" (state registration number 0121U110851). Within the research work there has been prepared section of collective monograph, which purpose is to provide comparative analysis of dynamics of socio-economic development indicators of Cherkasy oblast and neighboring regions in 2019–2021. The 2019–2021 years have been selected as an analyzed period in order to study dynamics of relevant indicators in pre-pandemic and pandemic period. The research methodology implies usage of wide range of socio-economic indicators that allows to cover different dimensions of regional development, such as gross regional product (GRP), available income per capita, salary per employee, net profit/net loss of the enterprises, informal employment, staff movement, average wages per worked hour, and wage fund. The research methods used in this work include statistical methods of correlation and dynamics analysis, monographic, tabular, systematization and generalization methods. The research results indicate the presence of high correlation between selected basic socio-economic indicators – GRP, net profit/net loss of the enterprises, available income per capita, and salary per employee in 2019. However, in 2020, net profit/net loss of the enterprises indicator did not demonstrate any significant correlation with other indicators. Selected regions’ enterprises demonstrated different dynamics of their net financial results during 2019–2021: mostly Poltava and Kyiv regions demonstrated better dynamics than Vinnytsa, Kirovohrd, and Cherkasy regions. The same dynamics applies to income of residents – Poltava and Kyiv regions are among leaders in the level of available income per capita and salary per employee. Finance and insurance are the highest paid areas of economic activities while construction, retail and wholesale have the lowest wages in selected regions. The research outcome allows to make a conclusion on the decrease in the level of informal employment in Ukraine on national level as well as in selected regions. As for the wage fund, both hryvna and US dollar equivalents of one have been gradually increasing during 2019–2021, the most substantial increase took place in 2021 comparing to 2020: the highest increase took place in Kyiv region (by 35 times), the lowest one – in Kirovohrad region (by 1.5 times). Analysis of staff movement dynamics indicate a strong tendency towards the number of quitted for employment to exceed the number of accepted for employment, the most significant excess took place during the fourth quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020. Practical implications. The research outcome can be used as an analytical basis for decision making in the area of regional program development and implementation as well as by academic community to foster a scholarly discussion on the impact of coronavirus crisis on socio-economic development. Value/originality. Taking into account that Ukrainian economy for the last years has been experiencing political and socio-economic crisis, that was significantly enhanced by COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2021 and tremendously enhanced by martial law regime, implemented in 2022, there is a necessity to research the coronavirus pandemic impact on economy. The martial law regime has changed focus of Ukrainian government towards defense and national security since 2022; however, the state of emergency on the national level regarding pandemic impact has been in force for the whole 2022 and has been prolonged to the end of April 2023.