Approaches to understanding the competitiveness of regions in the development of the economy: a comparative analysis of the countries of Europe and Ukraine

The article attempts to comprehend modern approaches to understanding and evaluating national competitiveness on regional scale. In particular, the evolutional perspective was applied, demonstrating how the vision of national and regional competitiveness changed in the last centuries. The paper emphasizes that the lack of effective methods for measuring the competitiveness of regions threatens the loss of global competitive advantages of the nation-state, since namely the regions are 'producers' of innovations and sustainability, and the best national economy is the one that is built on the synergy of regions. In addition, regional imbalances and high degree of unevenness in the development of regions are fraught with internal political tension in the country. The subject literature considered in the study has numerous visions of regional competitiveness, which affects exposing determinants in the regional competitiveness measurement and competitiveness. Yet, regarding the concept of competitiveness, variables that contribute to competitiveness, application, and practical strategies to promote competitiveness, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Within the study, the core drawbacks of the approach, indices, and metrics used in Ukraine for evaluating competitiveness of regions are analyzed, on the background of EU approaches and in comparative analysis. The paper presents selected regions competitiveness assessment models and measures that they use, with outlining of prospects of their application in Ukraine national regional landscape. The main emphasis is made on the application of a systemic approach and mandatory consideration of sustainability paradigm, inclusion of sustainable development parameters into the model of regional competitiveness assessment, as well as non-linearity of connections between indicators characterizing competitiveness of region.