Robert Rehak

This paper explores how the war in Ukraine changed the interest in higher education of Ukrainians who stayed on the territory of Ukraine and emigrated to other countries. The methodology is based on Google Trends Analysis and peak approach with Google Trends Scale of Internet user inquiries about higher education from June 20, 2021 to June 20, 2023 with a middle point on February 24, 2022. Dynamics of changes in the queries of Internet users by keywords regarding studied higher education are: 1) exclusively from the territory of Ukraine; 2) from the territory of Poland, Slovakia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Austria, i.e., top-10 countries by number of registered Ukrainian refugees according to the UN Refugee Agency. The key results are: 1) increased interest of Internet users in higher education after beginning of the full-scale war: Poland – 22.9%, Romania – 28.9%, Ukraine – 31.2%, Hungary – 32.4%, Slovakia – 35.8%, Moldova – 49.0% of average number of «university» inquiries; 2) increased requests for professional education (42.2%), distance education (25.6%), distance learning (34.1%) after February 24, 2022; 3) correlation between negative trends of interest per 32% from July 2021 (100 GT Scale) to July 2022 (68 GT Scale) in Ukraine and positive trends of this indicator in European counties in August 2022 (80-100 GT Scale). Chi-square test showed statistical significance of changes in interest in higher education (p-value = 0). Key findings demonstrate the following trends after February 24, 2022: distance learning development, increased Internet users’ orientation towards professional education for high-paying jobs, popularity of flexible schedules.

Acknowledgments
The educational outcomes in this publication were created with the support of the EU Erasmus+ program within the framework of projects ERASMUS-JMO-2021-HEI-TCH-RSCH-101048055 – «AICE – With Academic integrity to EU values: step by step to common Europe» and ERASMUS-JMO-2022-HEI-TCH-RSCH-101085198 «OSEE – Open Science and Education in Europe: success stories for Ukrainian academia».

The formation of the country’s tax competitiveness and countering the shadowing of the economy depend on several factors. One of them is an effective public administration. It defines state policy vectors, institutions’ critical tasks, and business and society development priorities. The aim of the paper is to analyze the impact of good governance on the country’s tax competitiveness and the level of the shadow economy of 11 EU countries and Ukraine in 2011–2021. The study employs statistical analysis of data series. It constructs a correlation field of points of relationship between indicators (to determine the general trends of changes in the level of the shadow economy, tax competitiveness, and the Good Governance Index). Linear mathematical model and Fishburn formula are used to construct an integral indicator of the level of efficiency of public management (Good Governance Index). Structural modeling methods formalize the influence of government management on the level of the shadow economy and tax competitiveness. It was found that the Government Efficiency Index and the Corruption Control Index exert the most significant correlation with the level of tax competitiveness and the shadow economy. Its increase of 1% leads to a rise in the level of tax competitiveness of Slovakia by 7.015%, Croatia by 6.889%, the Czech Republic by 6.606%, and Romania by 5.773%. At the same time, the smallest correlation with the level of tax competitiveness performs an Index of Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism.

Acknowledgment
The study is funded by the project VEGA – 1/0392/23 “Changes in the approach to the creation of companies’ distribution management concepts influenced by the effects of social and economic crises caused by the global pandemic and increased security risks.”
The authors are grateful to the participants of projects 0123U101945 and 0122U000777 for numerous discussions and comments.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study investigates the structural relationships between educational and scientific regulatory interventions and socio-economic development in countries affected by armed conflict and political instability, using the framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure). Rather than focusing on regulatory interventions in a narrow administrative sense, SDG 4 is conceptualized as a reflection of national efforts to improve access to and quality of education, including institutional reforms, policy initiatives, and capacity-building measures in post-conflict settings. The analysis covers 16 countries affected by conflict and instability across Eastern Europe, including Ukraine; the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia); the Middle East (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey); and the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), using data from 2011 to 2020. Employing multivariate confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the study reveals statistically significant and conceptually meaningful covariances between the selected SDGs. The strongest relationship is observed between SDG 8 and SDG 9, underscoring the interdependence of economic growth, industrial development, and innovation. Moderate but significant correlations between SDG 4 and both SDG 8 and SDG 9 highlight the foundational role of education in enabling socio-economic recovery and technological advancement. Key indicators such as primary school completion, secondary and tertiary enrollment, employment in industry and services, and high-tech value-added production serve as measurable proxies for these dynamics. The findings emphasize the importance of aligning education policy with broader development strategies to support resilience and sustainable growth in fragile contexts.

Acknowledgments and research funding
This research was funded by the European Union grants “NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia” (No. 09I03-03-V01-00130) and “Immersive Marketing in Education: Model Testing and Consumers’ Behavior” (No. 09I03-03-V04-00522/2024/VA). This research was also prepared as part of project 0124U000545.