From Cold War Anxiety to Scholarly Field: The Academicization of Economic Education in the United States, 1945–1979

Jean-Baptiste Fleury () and Yann Giraud ()
Additional contact information
Jean-Baptiste Fleury: HDEA - Histoire et Dynamique des Espaces Anglophones - UP4 - Université Paris-Sorbonne, SU - Sorbonne Université
Yann Giraud: AGORA - EA 7392 - Laboratoire AGORA - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Abstract This article examines the emergence of economic education as a recognized research field in the United States from the late 1950s to the 1970s. It argues that growing Cold War concerns about citizenship, economic literacy, and national competitiveness created a favorable environment for renewed interest in economic education. Within this context, organizations such as the Joint Council on Economic Education and the American Economic Association sought to professionalize the field by adopting the methodological standards of economics itself. The development of standardized assessment instruments, notably the Test of Economic Understanding (TEU) and the Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE), enabled the systematic evaluation of teaching methods and helped establish economic education as a legitimate area of empirical research. At the same time, these instruments contributed to standardizing the content of introductory economics, reinforcing a particular conception of economic knowledge while narrowing debate over alternative approaches to teaching the discipline.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in History of Political Economy, 2026, 58 (S1), pp.59-92. ⟨10.1215/00182702-12727459⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-05732111

DOI: 10.1215/00182702-12727459

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().