Viktoriia Taranenko

In the conditions of permanent capital outflow and business registration by residents in other jurisdictions, the issue of developing a country’s marketing strategies for doing business and identifying the most effective mechanisms for increasing international tax attractiveness is urgent. The prerequisite of these processes should be the determination of the level of international tax competitiveness followed by identifying the most significant factors of its growth. The purpose of the study is to assess the level of international tax competitiveness as an element of marketing strategies of Ukraine and some EU countries during 2011–2021. The methodological tools are correlation-regression analysis, the Fisher method, and the multiplicative convolution method. The paper assessed the level of international tax competitiveness as a comprehensive indicator that considers procedural, institutional, moral-ethical, and economic components. The calculations showed that the most competitive are the tax systems of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Based on hierarchical and non-hierarchical (k-means method) clustering, 3 clusters of regions were identified. For each of them, based on an analysis of the features of the tax system construction and the comparison of marginal and average values, the criteria for the identification of competing countries and those with common development trends were formed. This makes it possible to determine the most effective mechanisms for the implementation of marketing strategies reforming tax policy from the point of view of increasing its international tax attractiveness.

Acknowledgment
The study is funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia under the project No. 09I03-03-V01-00042.
The authors are grateful to the participants of projects “National security of Ukraine through the prevention of financial fraud and money laundering: war and post-war challenges” (2023–2025, state registration number: 0123U101945) and “De-shadowing and regulatory efficiency of environmental taxation: optimization modelling to ensure national security and rational use of nature” (2022–2024, registration number 0122U000777) for numerous discussions and comments.

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Socio-economic development in the EU countries is a complex process encompassing both social and economic progress. It involves enhancements in living standards, quality of life, and overall well-being, alongside economic growth and structural changes. Thus, the paper aims to identify and assess the key parameters for clustering EU countries by the components of their socio-economic development. The study utilized fifteen indicators from the Social Progress Index and the Human Development Index, reflecting different components of countries’ social development. Using the k-means method, the EU population is divided into three clusters (13, 5, and 9 countries, respectively) based on their similarity in social development. Then, using the decision tree method, the above indicators were assessed, including the following: “Nutrition and Medical Care,” “Health,” “Environmental Quality,” “Rights and Voice,” “Freedom and Choice,” and “Advanced Education.” These indicators are used as the key parameters for clustering countries by components of socio-economic development; therefore, their change largely determines the positions of countries as a whole and, accordingly, their convergence at the EU level. The study found significant differences between EU countries in their socio-economic aspects, particularly between the “old” and “new” members. The results obtained can be used to justify the priorities of EU socio-economic policy to ensure overall progress.

Acknowledgment
This article was published as an output of the project VEGA 1/0392/23: Changes in the approach to the development of distribution management concepts of companies influenced by the impact of social and economic crisis caused by the global pandemic and increased security risks. Funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia under the project No. 09103-03-V01-00042.