REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN UKRAINE

Different aspects of the disparities in socio-economic development across the countries and regions have been investigated during the last decades. This paper concerns the number of distinct hypotheses concerning different features causes and impacts of the regional disparities in Ukraine. Empirical verification of these hypotheses based on computation of the Theil Index as a measure of the magnitude of regional disparities showed that: unwanted dynamics of divergence across the regions exists in Ukraine as well as in the other East-European countries; regional disparities are exhibited in intergroup manner and are primarily caused by structural disproportions of economy; hampering interregional linkages and territorial integrity of national economy; disproportional territorial distribution of the foreign investments. The study underlines restraining impact of the regional disparities on economic growth of the national economy.