Viktoriia Datsenko

The military actions in Ukraine have actualized the transformation and revision of existing approaches to assessing the country’s economic security. Financial security, which is considered in this paper through its standard components such as financial sector security, stock market security, debt and budget security, has a significant effect on the formation of economic security. At the same time, digitalization in the financial sector was identified as a new component that provides access to financial resources even in the context of the deployment of hostilities in Ukraine. Therefore, this study assessed the effect of the state of financial security, taking into account the importance of financial digitalization for the economic security of Ukraine.
Based on quarterly data for the period 2015–2021, 42 indicators were analyzed, which were grouped according to the relevant components of financial security, and their integral indicators were determined using the Harrington method. A factor analysis of the formation of economic security was carried out using the principal components analysis, and an integral indicator of a country’s economic security was calculated based on the Kinney multiplicative convolution. The integral indicator of economic security for 2025–2021 doubled and amounted to 0.63 units, which was due to the increased influence of financial digitalization processes, all other components either slowly decreased or were stable. Thus, the reserve of economic security that was formed during this period, including due to the intensive digitalization of the financial sector, allowed Ukraine to survive the first weeks of the war and ensure the functioning of the financial system.

Acknowledgment
Comments from the Editor and anonymous referees have been gratefully acknowledged. Inna Shkolnyk and Yevhenii Kozmenko gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0122U000774 “Digitalization and transparency of public, corporate and personal finance: the impact on innovation development and national security”).

COVID-19 and Russia’s war against Ukraine have created many challenges for the business models of SMEs, stimulating them to develop alternative forms of business. Among the key alternatives, one should single out digitization. However, imperfections of Ukraine’s state support system for digital transformation necessitate adapting the positive practice of leading countries with excellent business digitalization. Therefore, this paper structures the practical experience of state support of European countries in the digitalization of SMEs. The study conducts a cluster analysis to identify countries whose experience in state support for business digitalization is the best for adoption. Clustering employed the criterion of using key digitization instruments: internet of things, integration of business processes into electronic processes, digital integration with customers/suppliers, cloud services, big data analysis, and artificial intelligence. Thus, 4 clusters were identified (the first cluster comprises 16 countries, the second – 2, the third – 5, and the fourth – 7). These findings contributed to the selection of some key measures. They included: expanding the financial capabilities of SMEs to adopt digital technologies in their processes; formation of digital hard skills among entrepreneurs and increasing the personnel potential of SME digitization; creation of a favorable business environment to stimulate the digital activity of SMEs; and popularization of business digitalization strategy as a component of digital transformation strategy in society.

The purpose of the study is to explore the influence of central bank digital currency on stock markets. To realize the purpose, the TVP-VAR model was built, which determines the impact of volatility of the CBDC attention index (CBDCAI) on the volatility of stock market indices. The study uses a time-varying vector autoregressive model that analyzes weekly data from the first week of January 2015 to the first week of July 2023. The endogenous vector to be assessed by VAR contains CBDCAI and stock market indices of different countries (France: CAC 40, The United States of America: S&P 500, Germany: DAX 40, United Kingdom: FTSE 100, China: SSEC, The Netherlands AEX 25, Switzerland: SMI 20, Japan: Nikkei 225, India: NIFTY 50, Brazil: BVSP, South Korea: KOSPI). The results of the TVP-VAR model show that compared to stock market indices, CBDCAI appeared to be relatively independent and isolated. Interdependence and mutual influence between the digital currency market of central banks and stock markets were also revealed. In addition, CBDC functions primarily as a volatility absorber rather than a source of volatility. Despite the overall ability of the CBDC market to absorb fluctuations in volatility, it may also change its function with the widespread adoption of central bank digital currencies in many countries.