We note a significant role of the agricultural sector in the development of economic systems in a significant number of post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe. However, Eastern European agricultural enterprises have significant problems in ensuring and managing their competitiveness, where reputation and the risks associated with it are of key importance. Novelty. The scientific novelty of the research paper is the developed algorithm of reputation risk management, which is based on the author's methodology of their evaluation and takes into account the peculiarities of such management in agricultural enterprises from the post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe. To achieve the goal and test the hypotheses put forward in the research paper, a set of general, specific and technical methods were used at the empirical and theoretical levels, such as: abstraction method; expert method; methods of analysis and synthesis; comparison; deduction; induction; methods of systematization, grouping and logical generalization. The research methodology is based on systemic and functional, historical and systemic approaches in identifying and resolving the range of problems of reputation risk management within the framework of improving the competitiveness management of agro-industrial enterprises from the post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe. For the purpose of the study, data were collected and an empirical analysis was conducted concerning the eleven Eastern European countries that were part of the Soviet Union for 1991-2018 regarding analysis of the dynamics of agricultural production and its share in GDP according to statistics taken from the KNOEMA databases. Policy considerations: the agricultural sector of the economy plays an increasing role in the economic systems of some post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe, serving as the basis for their sustainable development; agricultural producers from the post-Soviet space of Eastern Europe have problems with ensuring competitiveness in national, international and world markets; reputation risk plays a significant role in ensuring and improving the competitiveness management of agricultural enterprises from post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe; the formation of an effective reputation risk management algorithm is a key element in ensuring and improving the competitiveness management of Eastern European agricultural producers.

The aim of the article is to develop an applied methodology for identifying promising areas of agricultural development in Ukraine, which is based on the optimization of the tax burden on the industry through the use of production and institutional function. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is the concept of Laffer curve and methods of scientific knowledge (econometric methods of studying the impact of taxes on the economy, regression analysis). The study uses a methodological approach that allows to optimize the tax burden on agriculture, which increases the industry’s output at a significantly lower level of the tax burden. With the help of econometric modeling, the optimal values of the tax burden have been calculated; the main patterns of the impact of the tax burden on the economic growth of agricultural production have been determined. The modern development of agriculture within the framework of the concept of sustainable development should be aimed at achieving food security and slowing down global warming. In order to obtain opportunities for the real implementation of the declared sustainable development goals in practice, economic entities in the country’s agricultural sector must function effectively according to the criteria of socio-economic, environmental and financial efficiency. One of the most effective levers for achieving such components of efficiency in the current conditions of the development of agriculture in Ukraine is the optimization of the tax burden. It has been established that the indicators of the tax burden have a significant impact on the development trajectory of the industry and form opportunities for increasing the level of social protection of the population. To identify and model the impact of the tax burden on the development of agriculture and the possibility of achieving signs of sustainable development, it is proposed to use a four-factor production-institutional function. As econometric parameters of the functioning of the economic and production system of the agrarian sector, the level of wages, the volume of capital investments, land area, and taxes are chosen. The econometric parameters demonstrated by the elasticity coefficients of the selected factors made it possible to calculate the Laffer points of the first and second order, on the basis of which the level of the tax burden is justified, which contributes to the growth of agricultural production in the context of tax optimization. pressure on the industry. Further research should be aimed at developing a strategy for the development of agriculture in Ukraine