Hrypich O. Theoretical aspects of assessing and strengthening Ukraine’s social security

The thesis is aimed at developing theoretical and methodological provisions and suggesting scientific and practical recommendations to assessing and strengthening Ukraine’s social security. The thesis suggests a methodological approach to the integral estimation of the country's social security, the former including the following components: quality of life, standard of living, and government regulation. It also takes into account threats to the country's social security, making it possible to determine the level and disproportions of development, and can serve as a basis to form the areas for strengthening the country's social security. Methodological provisions to assess factors influencing the quality of life in Ukraine have been developed. Methodological support has been improved to determine the impact of the quality of life, the standard of living and the effectiveness of state regulation in the country's social sphere on the level of national economic development. This approach requires regression modeling to be used, and makes it possible to take scientific measures to ensure the country's social security. The theoretical and practical basis for the areas of strengthening the country's social security is presented, providing for the following chain: diagnosing problems present in ensuring the country's social security → structuring threats to the country's social security → assessing the level of social security in the EU and Ukraine → clustering the EU member states and Ukraine by the level of social security → modeling the influence of the social security components of the EU countries and Ukraine on their economic development → creating the areas for strengthening the country’s social security, which is expedient to take into account when adjusting the state social policy and developing operational and strategic programs for its implementation. The system of indicators for assessing the country's social security has been improved, which a) is based on ssessing the structure of threats to the country's social security; b) includes both integral and partial indicators characterizing the standard of living, quality of life and the effectiveness of state regulation in the social sphere; c) is formed using international indices and ratings, thus making it possible to determine the level of social security in Ukraine and the EU member states and to carry out their clustering. The essence of the social security concept has been clarified, being understood as a national economic security component, and security of national interests in the social sphere from external and internal threats through the development and implementation of the state policy aimed at improving the level and quality of life in the country. The influence of the quality of life, standard of living and efficiency of the state control in the country’s social sphere on the country’s level of economic development is modeled. It is proved that changes in the indicators of the "Standard of Living" component provide the greatest impact on the value of the GDP per capita. The areas for strengthening Ukraine’s social security within the pandemic of COVID19 coronavirus infection are identified, namely: saving lives, protection of the economically disadvantaged and underprivileged groups, support for business, and preservation of jobs.