The Level of Development – Students’ Perceptions and Beyond: The Case of Balkan Countries

This paper investigates the level of development in Balkan coun­tries through comparison of the common development indicators. A start­ing point is the perception of the level of economic development by a group of first year economics students at the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism in Split, Croatia. With the students typically not being aware (fa­miliar) of how rich (poor) their country is, this study provides a deeper inves­tigation of the level of development of Croatia and compares it with sever­al countries from the neighborhood. The investigation employs commonly used indicators of economic development – GNI (Gross national income) per capita as usually reported by the World Bank, but also takes into account additional indicators like HDI (Human development index) and life satisfac­tion indicator. Overall, the study provides an interesting review and compar­isons between countries and resolves some misperceptions that are typical­ly present in general public.