Efficiency of Decentralization as an Important Instrument of Ukraine’s Socio-Economic Development

The paper suggests methodological approaches to the complex evaluation of the efficiency of decentralization reform, which can be used for monitoring and adjusting decisions at any of its implementation stages. The suggested methodological approaches contribute to narrowing the results of the analysis of diverse phenomena and processes down to a single unified system of standardized parameters, thereby developing a single monitoring model and simplifying the decision-making process. The fact that the decentralization process has primarily 3 interrelated and interdependent directions is taken into account in forming the methodological approaches to evaluation of the ongoing reform efficiency. The indicators of analysis of the reform implementation efficiency across the organizational-administrative, budgetary, and socio-economic components are systematized in order to be used both for determining the average reform implementation paces in the country and comparing the respective structural changes. The set of mathematical tools to evaluate them is suggested. The efficiency of the decentralization reform implementation is comprehensively analyzed across Ukrainian regions. The major accomplishments and bottlenecks to be addressed at the current stage are determined. The comparative analysis of the efficiency of the decentralization reform implementation across Ukrainian regions has shown that, currently, there isn’t any consistent relationship between the organizational, budgetary, and socio-economic results of the reform in the regions. The abovementioned processes remain to be unbalanced due to slow reform implementation in some regions, available unresolved controversies, some duplicated managerial functions, and lacking sufficient level of residents’ confidence in authorities.