The current trends of globalization, the integration of banks and insurance companies worldwide into a single financial conglomerate, as well as the emergence of new electronic payment instruments, force governments of different countries to search for new approaches to analyse the risks of involvement of financial institutions in money laundering. The research explains how to use the data mining and bifurcation analysis based on the limited information on general indices of a country's characteristics to evaluate the state's resilience to the involvement of its financial institutions in money laundering. The purpose of the article is to develop a scientific and methodological approach to assessing the risk of using financial institutions in money laundering. It is based on the study of the dynamic stability of this risk on the basis of bifurcation theory. Empirical calculations show that for a group of countries, to which Ukraine belongs, the dynamic system is in a non-equilibrium state and is described as a phase portrait "saddle". Therefore, the risk of using financial institutions for money laundering is high in Ukraine, although it is under certain control by the state. However, the calculations show that under conditions of the partial reform of the anti-money laundering system in Ukraine, the system will lose its conditional stability and the corresponding risk will increase even more

Providing of sustainability is one of the main priorities in normative documents in various countries. Factors affecting regional competitiveness is seen as close to them determining sustainability in many researches. The aim of this research was to identify and evaluate main factors of competitiveness for statistical regions of Latvia to promote sustainable development of the country, applying the complex regional competitiveness assessment system developed by the author. The analysis of the Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI) and its sub-indexes showed that each statistical region has both: factors promoting and hindering competitiveness. Overall the most competitive is Riga statistical region, but the last place takes Latgale statistical region. It is possible to promote equal regional development and sustainability of Latvia by implementing well-developed regional development strategy and National Action Plan. To develop such strategies, it is necessary to understand the concept of sustainable competitiveness. To evaluate sustainable competitiveness of Latvia and its regions it is necessary to develop further the methodology of regional competitiveness evaluation.

There is a lack of methodologically grounded and generally accepted regional competitiveness’ evaluation method in Latvia. Common feature of the research about nature of competitiveness is that competitiveness of a region depends on how high and sustainable the level of prosperity in the region is. The analysis of scientific literature showed, that most often synthetic indexes are used to evaluate competitiveness of a region. Methodology to evaluate regional competitiveness was developed and approbated in case of Latvia. To identify the most appropriate method for competitiveness index calculation, Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI) according to two different methods was calculated in the research. The results obtained were similar, but each of index calculation methods has its own advantages and disadvantages and the choice of the appropriate method will depend on the researcher's goals and objectives. Use of relative weights in index calculations affects the obtained results, therefore, necessity of relative weights must be economically justified. It was proven that regional competitiveness cannot be characterized by such simple indicators as GDP or GDP per capita. RCI shows the level of competitiveness of Latvia’s statistical regions, it is possible to compare regions in time and among each other. It allows to form regional development policy and strategy more reasonably.

While sustainability is a much-researched issue, little has been written about the role of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in implementing sustainable development, specifically in small cities. The authors pose the following questions: What is the interrelation between CCI practices and the four pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental, cultural, and social) in small cities? What are the practices that CCIs use, and which they perceive as contributions to sustainable development? The authors use a single case study strategy, methods including a theoretical study, a quantitative pilot survey, a focus group discussion, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis. Overall, the article indicates that there is a varied and diverse repertoire of small- and large-scale practices carried out by CCIs in small cities in Latvia, and thus contributes to the existing scholarly literature by “teasing out” those practices. The study indicates that each of the practices may contribute to two or more sustainability pillars, thus they are analyzed in pairs to find out what traits are reflected in these practices. Notably, CCI entrepreneurs believe that sustainable development is important and that they contribute to it.

Increasing the quality of life is one of the main long-term development goals mentioned in Latvian planning documents. In order to assess whether the goals are achieved, it is necessary to find the optimal solution for quality of life evaluation. The aim of the article is to find the most suitable method for assessing and comparing quality of life in the regions of Latvia. The most popular and easy-to-use method for quality of life evaluation is calculation of the complex index, but the indicators could be normalized according to different methodology. In this paper 7 methods of calculation of indexes were compared and the advantages and disadvantages of each method were determined, as well as the optimal method for calculating the quality of life index at the regional level was chosen. To evaluate quality of life, factors such as financial situation, health, economic activity, education, dwelling, security and environment were used and 10 descriptive indicators were selected. In the assessment of the quality of life in the regions of Latvia, it was concluded that Pieriga and Riga regions have the highest quality of life, but the lowest quality of life is in Latgale region. The most appropriate method for assessing the quality of life is to calculate the Quality of Life (QoL) Index as a percentage of the average, or by using the min-max normalization formula and obtaining index values in the range from 0 to 1.