Purpose. To analyze and evaluate the impact of urbanization on socio-economic indicators of development in three different countries and determine how changes in the demographic processes of the urban population affect the economic development and financial stability of the regions. Methodology. The research methodology is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis and includes the study of demographic characteristics, labor status, education, living conditions and well-being. To carry out such an analysis, statistical methods were used, namely regression analysis, which is used to identify the relationship between urbanization and economic indicators. The use of variation coefficient made it possible to determine the differentiation degree of urbanization level, and the use of correlation coefficients allowed assessing the closeness of the relationship between urbanization and the volume of the produced gross regional product, as well as the country’s financial potential. In general, the regression model provided possibilities to present the dependence between significant factors and determine their influence on the socio-economic development of individual regions. Findings. The study revealed the multi-component impact of urbanization on the development of regions, namely on the financial potential (measured as GDP per capita) of Poland, Spain and Ukraine. The research analyzed the complexity of urbanization and its impact on various socio-economic factors, such as regional differences, infrastructure concentration and ecological consequences. It has been shown that the significant benefits of urbanization, such as stimulating innovation, creating new jobs and facilitating global trade, can be accompanied by significant investment in urban infrastructure and cause environmental problems or facilitate the spread of disease. The conclusions emphasize the need to implement a national program of “smart cities” part of a long-term development strategy for effective management of urbanization processes. And the importance of further research on urbanization under the conditions of global demographic changes caused by the war in Ukraine is also underlined. Originality. Based on the analysis of the processes of urbanization in Poland, Spain and Ukraine, the key factors shaping the advantages and disadvantages of urbanization for the socio-economic development of these countries are identified. By means of regression analysis, for each of the researched countries, the dependence between the indicators of population change in urban and rural areas and the volume of the produced gross regional product within each national economy was established, and the existence of a connection between the financial potential of the country and the number of its urban population was also revealed. The influence of urbanization on demographic changes, economic growth, infrastructure and environmental conditions of the studied countries is demonstrated. Practical value. The article substantiates the data and analyzes the impact of urbanization on various aspects of life in the cities of Poland, Spain, and Ukraine. The results of the study can serve as a basis for developing policies aimed at optimizing urbanization processes, planning the development of urban agglomerations, as well as solving problems related to urban growth and management, including infrastructure, housing, transport and ecology.

Bank capitalization is a key factor in the banking system’s resilience to economic shocks, as outlined in the Basel Accords on banking regulation. The paper aims to empirically evaluate the connection between bank capitalization and the socio-economic development level. The study uses World Bank data across 34 European countries of varying income levels (high, upper-middle, and lower-middle) for the years 2010, 2015, and 2020 as periods of financial and socio-economic turbulence. The study applies principal component analysis and correlation methods to identify relevant indicators. Countries were grouped using hierarchical clustering and K-means clustering methods. The results of the variance analysis revealed that only two indicators of bank capitalization – the share of non-performing loans and return on assets, and three socio-economic indicators – the Gini index, inflation, and unemployment, were statistically significant. As a result of both qualitative and quantitative changes between clusters, countries were reallocated from four clusters in 2010 and 2015 to three clusters by 2020: high-income countries, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, and others, consolidated into a single stable cluster (Cluster 3) in terms of both bank capitalization and socio-economic development. The primary drivers of inter-cluster movements were the positive dynamics of non-performing loans and bank assets, superior bank capitalization ratios, and improvements in inflation and unemployment levels. Based on the study’s findings, a matrix of transformational sustainability among European countries has been developed. The analysis confirms a relationship between the components of the chain: “level of bank capitalization – level of socio-economic development”.

The relevance of considering and analyzing financial stability and competitive immunity at the meso-level in modern conditions is increasing due to changes in the state of both the economic and social spheres. It was found that the “competitive immunity of the territory” reflects a number of new characteristics of modern territorial-regional-interregional competition in the global economy, which distinguishes it from the concept of economic security both at the macro and meso levels. The paper considers the category of “competitive immunity of the region”, which implies the possibility of survival of the peripheral territories of the regions of Ukraine and maintaining their high level of competitiveness. In accordance with the accepted concept of competitive immunity, three problemarea blocks were identified: information-digital approach; information and digital technologies; cost and reputation management, which include objects of managerial influence necessary to evaluate the transition of competitive immunity to sustainable functioning. The main aspect in the study of the financial stability of the local regional budgets as an integral part of the competitive immunity of the region was the search for criteria and the development of a methodology for evaluating efficiency. The following performance indicators of local budgets were used: budget revenues; budget spending; intergovernmental transfers from the state budget; tax revenues; the amount of equalization subsidies; non-tax revenues; average population. An applied study of the methodology for assessing the financial sustainability of the budget as an object of managerial influence at the local level was carried out on the example of selected indicators of local budgets of all regions of Ukraine for 2018-2020. The calculation of the selected indicators was made on the basis of statistical data on the local budgets implementation, reports and decisions of regional councils on the regional budget. The distribution of the initial data set into clusters was analyzed with help of the Deductor business analytical platform, using the k-means clustering algorithm and Kohonen maps. Based on the results of the k-means algorithm, it was found that it is advisable to divide the sample for classifying regions into three groups. To compare and evaluate the effectiveness of the results obtained, as well as to supplement the analysis of the financial stability of the regions of Ukraine, Kohonen maps were used using the Deductor business analytical platform. It was revealed that both methods allow efficient clustering of data in a multidimensional space. The results of clustering obtained by different methods are consistent with each other and, when applied in a complex manner, make it possible to classify the elements of the sample with maximum likelihood and minimum error. The regions of Ukraine were grouped according to the financial stability of the local budget into three groups: regions with high financial stability, regions with medium financial stability and regions with low financial stability. The correct interpretation of the results obtained through a comprehensive analysis of financial stability in relation to the local budget using clustering or using neural networks allows not only to analyze the obtained values, but to compare them with the standard and conduct a comparative analysis relative to other regions, identify the influence of factors on the change in the integral indicator, give a predictive assessment for the future and justify the chosen strategy for strengthening competitive immunity for a particular region.