In a globalized, knowledge-driven economy, the quality of higher education is a pivotal contributor to socio-economic advancement, yet its assessment remains complex due to its inherent subjectivity and multifaceted nature. This study presents an innovative methodological approach for evaluating the quality of higher education within the knowledge economy framework, utilizing the context-input-process-output (CIPO) model, exploratory factor analysis, and stochastic frontier analysis. The input indicators include financial resources (government spending per student, direct public funding for a student, share of capital/current expenditures, compensation to the teaching/nonteaching staff), human resources (student–teacher ratio, share of enrollment in higher education, number of teachers), and expected duration of higher education. The output indicators include the general level of graduation from first-degree programs and level of education, at least completed short-cycle higher education. Indicators of economic (GDP per capita) and social (employment rate and Gini index) development of the country were chosen as context parameters. Conducting a comparative analysis across 36 European countries from 2001 to 2017 available data, the authors identified integrated factors for input and output parameters, as well as context parameters characterizing the quality of higher education. Then we categorize national higher education systems into five distinct quality levels: very low, low, satisfactory, high, and very high. This classification enables us to dissect and understand the challenges faced by countries at the lower end of the quality spectrum and propose strategic solutions informed by the best practices of the leading nations. Our findings offer critical insights into optimizing higher education quality to enhance competitive advantages for educational institutions, improve employment prospects and living standards for students, secure a more qualified workforce for employers, and spur economic growth and productivity at the national level. This comprehensive assessment underscores the role of quality education as a cornerstone of the knowledge economy, driving innovation, economic development, and societal progress.

The main aim of the study is to test the hypothesis that social expenditures are not only a source of social support and budgeting of the social sphere, but can be a significant lever of economic development, provided proper planning of their share and volume. In this regard, the authors have adapted the open-economy multiplier to assess the economic effect of social expenditures. Based on the correlation analysis of the relationship between the share of social expenditures (% of GDP) and the multiplier of social expenditures, conducted on the example of EU countries, two groups of countries are identified depending on the impact of social expenditure multiplier on GDP: the first one embraces those countries that are characterized by a growing economic return from social expenditures; the second one is where the return is declining. To determine the optimal levels of social expenditures, which can be expected to have a positive economic effect in the form of GDP growth, we have identified critical limits of the multiplier of social expenditures according to the principle: the maximum value is seen in the group of countries with positive impact; the minimal one is experienced in countries with inverse dependence of the share of social expenditures and their multiplier. As a result, the experience of financing social expenditures in the EU leads to the conclusion that the optimal share of social expenditures in GDP ranges from 28% to 30% – within these limits multiplier values exceed 1.0, i.e. there is a positive impact of social expenditures on GDP in the form of the growth of economic results over the resources consumed.

The study aims to study the role of leadership in innovative development, including opportunities arising from the attractiveness of countries for intellectual migrants. The novelty of the research is in justifying the authors’ approach to assessing leadership development at the macroeconomic level and its use for defining the peculiarities of leadership development in the EU and assessing the links with of innovative development and attraction of countries for intellectual migrants. Considering leadership as an important feature of the macroeconomic environment for countries’ development, the correlation analysis was used to test hypotheses about the positive impact of leadership on (a) the attractiveness of countries for intellectual migrants; (b) the innovative development of countries. The resulting pairwise correlation coefficients for the EU show a strong relationship between the level of leadership and a country’s ability to attract (0.776) and retain talent (0.846), attract highly educated workers (0.757) and foreign entrepreneurs (0.780). A positive impact of leadership on innovative development is confirmed by the links with the overall value of the Global Innovation Index (0.825), the Growth of innovative companies (0.768) and the Entrepreneurial employee activity rate (0.599). The obtained findings prove the importance of leadership development as an important driver of talent attraction and the generation of innovative ideas.