Reforming Economics and Economics Teaching in the Transition Economies

This comprehensive volume presents a multi-country investigation of reform of economic education in transition economies. Authors from the West and the transition economies describe the major changes in economics content and instruction that occurred in schools and universities throughout nations in eastern and central Europe and the former Soviet Union from 1989 to 2000. Nine of the chapters discuss specific countries - Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kyrgyztan, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. Other chapters describe reforms in the undergraduate economics curriculum at Moscow State University, Kiev State University, and Belarus State University. One chapter reports the findings from a five-nation study of the effect of economics programs to retrain teachers on the economic understanding of secondary students. Another chapter explains the important role of economic education in creating support for public policy reforms in a nation. The results from multi-national surveys of public attitudes toward economic reforms and the market economy are also analyzed. The book concludes with an insightful explanation of the major "change agents" responsible for the reform of academic economics and the teaching of economics in the transition economies.