Recent global economic and social challenges confirm the existence of a number of systemic problems in socio-economic relations. Thus, the spread of the concept of sustainable development, which combines social, environmental and economic aspects, became a characteristic feature of the global development trend in recent decades. Highly developed world countries are currently implementing the principles of social economy (a special state management model for socio-economic development) in their policies with the aim to overcome abovementioned challenges and to reach the millennium development goals. The implementation of these principles, realized by the state management in these countries during the last decades, enables us to evaluate the available results and highlight the characteristics of individual national business models of social economy. The study of the most important social and economic global indicators by means of modeling, clustering and regression analysis made it possible not only to emphasize the most important indicators characterizing socio-economic development, but also, taking into account the establishment of interrelationships between social and economic parameters, to single out separate groups of countries (exclusively the European region has been selected for the research) united by common principles and methods of social and economic policy and its implementation outcomes. The obtained results allow us to predict further trends of socio-economic development of separate groups of countries taking into account the available material and technical resources, the situation on the labor market and the level of competitiveness of national labor resources, the features of the functioning of the monetary and tax systems, etc. Given the results of clustering, it was possible to identify both specific models for socio-economic development specific to certain groups and their inherent tendencies of functioning. Besides, a set of specific methods and mechanisms of government control which are common and the best suitable for these systems is determined.

The creative economy is currently demonstrating quite intensive development indicators, and the share of the creative sector in GDP creation is constantly growing. The aim of this article is to reveal the interrelation and interdependence of socio-economic development factors and to clarify the place of the creative sector in ensuring sustainable economic growth. On the basis of 19 variables, the economies of the EU countries were analyzed by means of cluster analysis, which allowed the authors to single out 8 clusters in the constructed dendrogram, united by the nature and trends, as well as the role of the creative sector in these processes. In addition, the degree of correlation and interaction between the influencing factors themselves was described. Using RStudio, the authors built two multiple regression models, where the dependent variables were GDP and the global creativity index, and the factors were the indicators used to calculate the creativity index. Innovations and creativity are one of priorities of the program of socio-economic development of the European Union. There is a universal approach to understanding the importance of creative economy in the EU. However, the practical implementation of the strategy of development and activity of the creative industries by the EU countries is carried out in the following different directions – the foreign economic expansion of the creative industries themselves; the promotion of all national culture at the international level; export-oriented development of the creative sector of the economy; the lack of a separate comprehensive strategy of foreign economic activity for the creative industries, but the implementation of various programs and measures aimed at promoting exports of products of these industries as part of a national development strategy. Overall, the active functioning of the EU creative sector directly or indirectly affects the economy by improving its performance and creating jobs, stimulating innovation, and contributing to social and sustainable development. As a result, it was found that the global creativity index is largely dependent on the share of the creative class. It has also been proved that the creative and cultural industries determine the growth of a country's economy in terms of traditional economic and employment indicators. Investments in the creative economy will increase the qualitative and quantitative indicators of sustainable economic development.