The aim of the research is to determine the impact of financial technology (FinTech) on financial development in EU countries. The multi-dimensional nature of the concepts described above and the low availability of data for regions smaller than countries makes it difficult to investigate the link between financial development and FinTech, as well as affects the values of the results due to a certain averaging of indices across countries. The study examines the Global FinTech Index and the Financial Development Index, which characterize financial development in the EU countries, as well as the sub-indices of the Financial Development Index. The article applies frequency analysis and correlation analysis methods. A positive linear relationship between the Global Fintech Index and the Financial Markets Index sub-index, as well as its components Financial Markets Depth Index and Financial Markets Efficiency Index, has been identified. There is also a positive linear relationship between the Global FinTech Index and the Financial Institutions Depth Index, while a negative linear relationship has been identified between the Global FinTech Index and the Financial Institutions Access Index.

To what extent does financial development determine economic growth? Despite the obvious relationship between the level of financial development and economic growth rates, there is still no consensus on the significance and focus of this relation. Is there a directed impact of the level of financial development on economic growth, or does the development of a financial sector follow economic growth? Or is the relation between financial development and economic growth bidirectional? The aim of the research is to analyze the causal relationship between quantitative and dynamic differences in financial development and economic growth in the EU countries in the period 1995 - 2017. The period of the research from 1995 to 2017 is determined by the availability of financial development indicators for the EU countries. In order to prove the directed impact of the level of financial development on economic growth in the EU countries in the period 1995-2017, the average values of growth in the financial development index with the lag forwarding by one year, with the lag falling behind by one year, without the lag, and average values of the GDP growth per capita were analyzed.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

The aim of the research is to determine the impact of openness and political stability which characterize the state of political rights and civil liberties; financial state regulation; the determinant of legal traditions which determines judicial independence, impartiality of the courts, protection of property rights, etc., the determinant of financial institutions, as well as the impact of certain macroeconomic indicators on the financial development of the EU countries in the period 1995 – 2017.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies

The article aims to study Latvian municipal budget expenditures on transport infrastructure and production in the context of improving the local economy. The authors hypothesize that the comparative priority of municipal budget expenditures on two items is determined by the state of the local economy; in municipalities with a more developed economy it is ‘transport’ rather than ‘production’ budget expenses that are more likely to improve the local economy, and in municipalities with a less developed economy – vice versa. The authors tested the hypothesis based on data for 2021 and 2022 (the time after the reform of the territorial-administrative structure of Latvia) for 43 Latvian municipalities using various methods of statistical analysis. The results show that the comparative priorities in Latvian municipal budget expenditures are determined not by the state of the local economy, but rather by the geographical (or geopolitical/geoeconomical) location of the municipality. As a result of this, Latvian municipalities are grouped into territorial clusters, using the agglomeration effect from the concentration of transport infrastructure or production. Over the past year, there has been a tendency towards ‘transport-production’ economic restructuring of the territory of Latvia, the reasons for which may be geopolitical situation in the Eastern Europe.