Many of the challenges facing humankind, such as climate change, water scarcity, inequality, and hunger, can be resolved not only at a global level by promoting sustainable development but, first of all, at a local level. Local communities in many countries have been seeking to improve sustainability. They are the policy makers and catalysts of change that unify the global goals with their own local ones. In light of the theoretical background, this article uses the example of Ukraine to extend the analysis of the effective management of common resources proposed by Elinor Ostrom by introducing obstacles and opportunities for local communities working toward sustainable development. Considering the experience of European states, the foundation of the transformation of the conditions of sustainable development is a citizen as an individual, guided by his or her own "taste of life" in accordance with the state-and community-guaranteed right to choose one's own place in life. Under the relevant conditions, it is expedient to look for effective tools that would exert influence on central and local governments, and the possibilities of transforming the entire system of public administration by focusing on the role of the community and its opportunities for the effective use of shared resources. The duplication of the process of consolidation without development of a social state only destroys the remnants of local self-governance and, as a consequence, all other branches of power in general.

The issue of measuring the “taste of life” is one of the main tasks in the proces of management decentralization in the state. The term “taste of life” is considered to be the degree of an individual’s satisfaction from living, functioning and carrying out his own activity in society in accordance with economic rules and orders. To solve this problem, three approaches were applied by considering the “taste of life” as a function of state authorities’ services, shadow activity and communal budget. Based on mathematical modelling and the results of expert surveys in 50 communities in the Ukrainian environment, authors made an attempt to identify the degree of state’s regularities in society and to test the constructed models. According to the results, a higher “taste” on the basis of state services caused a decrease in the likelihood of a person returning after the possibility of working and living abroad. The higher “taste” caused the smaller sensitivity to institutes of the shadow economy. At the same time, the “taste” on the basis of shadow services correlates negatively with sensitivity to the state’s official engagement in business and penalties for informal activity. So, the higher this segment, the smaller the sensitivity. The behavior of those who consider communal services and the work of the community as a basic variable is quite different. The “taste” on the basis of community services cannot explain the sensitivity to the shadow institutes and dynamics of emigration. Consequently, decentralization is a way of overcoming corruption.

The production, or value added, approach to GDP involves calculating an industry or sector’s output and subtracting its intermediate consumption (the goods and services used to produce the output) to derive its value added. The value added at the macro level depends on business efficiency. It reflects an increase in value that a business creates by undertaking the production process. We assumed that the market creates thousands of vibrating energies, coming from other enterprises, with different frequencies. The purpose of this article is to verify whether the econophysics approach could be successfully used to assess a business from the perspective of the interaction between economic forces. Thus, we propose that the term ‘value added’ be understood as a certain amount of accumulated energy of enterprises that comes from the interaction of basic economic forces and economic vibrating forces of accounting. Using regression models, we show the influence of basic forces, like debt and the stock market, and vibrating ones (i.e., accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory) on the economic value added by testing US, European, and emerging markets. We confirmed the relevance and appropriateness of the econophysics approach to estimating the economic value added.

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The research presents an investigation of the zombie phenomenon in banking and business. The main goals are as follows: to reveal the consequences of the threatening dynamics of nonperforming loans for the states of Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, the group of former USSR states, and Latin America; to demonstrate the zombie business phenomenon in the case of Ukraine and disclose a new form of zombie business on the basis of different tools with exception of banking loans. The authors believe the solution to the zombie banks problem will not be found in the growth of government influence or control but in the restructuring of the banking system based on a decentralized but strongly controlled bottom‑up model. The ineffectiveness of the institutional system also generates various forms of zombie business. The case of Ukraine is the best illustration of applying the tools, that are used in zombie business, with the exception of banking loans. The article helps to understand the influence of nonperforming loans on the economy and the perspectives for banking system formation in the light of the institutional aspect and interinstitutional interactions with the active participation of NPLs.