IMPACT OF EXPENDITURES FOR EDUCATION ON THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE ECONOMY

Modern trends in society lead to the conclusion that the development of a country can not be based on a numerical increase in human resources, but only on raise of the creative and production quality of these resources, which is the exclusive task of the educational system. According to the indicators of investment in the development of the educational system, the Republic of Serbia is below the EU average. For this reason, one of the conditions that the Republic of Serbia needs to meet on its path towards the European Union is to achieve the European average spending on higher education.The subject of the research presented in this paper are the expenditures on education and competitivness of the economy in the Republic of Serbia and neighboring countries. Since the quality of education is one of the elements of economy competitiveness, it will be also analyzed in the paper. The aim of the paper is to examine the relation between expenditures on education, quality of education and competitiveness in the Republic of Serbia and neighboring countries. Appropriate statistical techniques will be used in order to analyse relation directions and forms between observed indicators. Data from the National Bank of Serbia, Eurostat and World Economic Forum reports will serve as an information basis for the analyse