TRADE LIBERALIZATION: ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS FROM BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND CROATIA

Even the fact that most of the countries adopted increasingly liberal strategies of economic development, there is a lack of surveys that deal with the attitudes of their citizens towards economic liberalization. The main goal of this study was to explore the attitudes towards trade liberalization in a rapidly changing economic environment, providing a comparative analysis of two countries: Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). For the purpose of this study empirical evidence was derived from the questionnaire survey methods. Research was conducted on a convenience sample of 200 undergraduates approaching the end of their studying of economics at the Universities of Mostar and University of Rijeka. Sampling students from the faculties of economics is appropriate in order to understand how the future business leaders and potential policy makers see the trade liberalization. The students’ attitudes towards liberalization were examined on the three levels: on the level of attitudes towards liberalization in general, on the level of the attitudes towards trade liberalization and on the level of trade liberalization with EU in case of the sample from B&H as well as within EU in the case of Croatian sample. The measurement scales for the tree level attitudes were confirmed to be reliable. The attitudes towards liberalization have been explored on the level of the total sample and across the subsamples of students from B&H and Croatia. It has been found that across the samples the difference in attitude between the students in Bosnia and B&H and their peers in Croatia not exist. The overall research results point on significant positive preferences towards trade liberalization among students in B&H and their Croatian counterparts. However, we found no statistically significance in examining the attitudes on trade liberalization with EU in case of B&H sample or within EU in the case of Croatian sample, which means that neither Croatia nor B&H students believe that Croatia has or B&H will experience only positive effects from trade liberalization with other EU member countries.