Federiakin, D., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Kardanova, E., Kühling-Thees, C., Reichert-Schlax, J., & Koreshnikova, Y. (2022). Cross-National Structure of Economics Competence: Insights from a German and Russian Assessment. Research in Comparative and International Education, online. doi:10.1177/17454999211061243

 

 

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a study, which models and measures the competencies of higher education students in business and economics - within and across countries. To measure student competencies in a valid and reliable way, the Test of Understanding in College Economics is used, which assesses microeconomic and macroeconomic competencies. The test was translated into several languages and adapted for different university contexts. The functional and measurement equivalence of all adapted test versions were demonstrated in several studies, which makes the test suitable for international comparisons of student competence. Our findings from the cross-national analysis suggest one strong general factor of economic competence, which encompasses micro- and macro-economic dimensions. This points to a stronger interconnection between learning and understanding economic contents than previous research suggests and indicates far-reaching curricular and instructional consequences for higher education economics, which are discussed in this paper.