Welfare and perspectives of Serbian residents

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the assessment of the Serbian economy through the prism of life standard and the quality of life of the population in general, which we consider to be the most important criterion. In order to get the most realistic picture, this research was carried out with the aim of comparing the economy of Serbia with neighbouring countries. They all form two groups: EU members and the candidates, where the quality of life of the population is compared in order to determine the differences between them. Two statistic methods were used in the analysis - Student's T-test and Single-factor Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). They show that the period which was taken for the analysis, reveals a significant statistic disagreement between Serbia on one part, and Romania and Albania on the other part, regarding the Human Development Index which measures the quality of life of one country per capita. It was also found that such a difference does not exist between a group of member states and groups of candidate countries for EU accession. This angle of observation of the national economy and exact approach are not common in our modern practice and can be useful as a basis for continuous improvement of the economic system and economic policy. One should look up to more successful comparative economies and re-examine the proclaimed economic benefits of EU membership.

Keywords

• Human Development Index
• statistically significant differences
• quality of life of the population
• EU membership