The Methodological Approaches to Assessing the Economic State and Structural Transformations of Regional Economic Systems

The article examines the theoretical and methodological foundations of assessing the economic condition and structural transformations of regional economic systems. A critical analysis of existing methodological approaches has been carried out, identifying their advantages and limitations. It is found that a comprehensive assessment of regional economic systems requires the integration of positivist, institutional, evolutionary, and synergistic paradigms for ensuring a multidimensional analysis. A comprehensive methodological instrumentarium has been proposed for diagnosing the economic development of the western region of Ukraine, considering sectoral specifics and structural characteristics. A taxonomy of methodological approaches has been developed based on criteria of the nature of the indicators used, the level of economic system coverage, and the time perspective of assessment. The necessity of combining quantitative and qualitative assessment methods to identify the potential for economic growth in priority sectors of the economy has been substantiated. Methodological approaches have been adapted to assess the priority sectors of the economy of the western region of Ukraine, namely: the tourism and recreation sector, the agro-industrial complex, the IT sector, and the creative industries. Specific methods of analysis have been proposed for each of these sectors, taking into account their characteristics and potential for structural transformations. It is identified that the geo-economic specificity of the western region of Ukraine requires special attention to the assessment of cross-border cooperation, the potential for European integration, entrepreneurship development, and innovative activity. The practical significance of the results obtained lies in the possibility of their use in developing regional development strategies, programs for the structural modernization of the economy of the western region of Ukraine, as well as conducting comprehensive assessments of the economic state of territories based on the proposed methodological instruments.