A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of EconomicsNávrat zpět

Foreign and Internal Trade as the main disciplines in the field of research and study have developed theoretical systems that reflected historical development of international economic and business environment, governmental trade policy and international and domestic businesses. They created a basis, on which the Faculty of International Relations after 1989 has designed a new profile discipline "International Trade" in the framework of the "International Economic Relations" program. Very important features of the discipline, both of study and research areas, are a deep internationalization and an interdisciplinary approach. The discipline's development reflects world trends, international scientific knowledge and domestic specificities and introduces new terminology for new qualitative processes of international business to the Czech economy. To the discipline's development, very many excellent teachers and important personalities of the Czechoslovak and Czech economy contributed. The modern discipline comprehends analysis of global economic and institutional relations and of theoretical concepts, together with practical managerial branches. A prove of high standards of teaching and research is a prestigious accreditation EPAS by which the discipline "International Trade" has been awarded by the European Foundation of Management Development in 2012.

This paper aims to commemorate Albín Bráf and Josef Macek as the key figures in the history of Czech economic thinking. It focuses on three topics which their theoretical works had in common: firstly, the methodology of economics and its assesment as a social science, secondly, the solutions to social questions within the framework of economic policies and, thirdly, the significance of economic education and popularization of economics. The objective of the study is to detect continuity in Czech economic thinking and open a discusion on its posibilities within both the Communist and post-Communist period.

The author addresses the question of interdisciplinary studies based on his own experience. His negative experiences are confirmed by the results of a quantitative survey demonstrating that the proportion of citations from other disciplines is very low in four examined fields (economics, law, political science and sociology). But the overall picture is colored by positive examples: the theory of rational choice and game theory have broken the bounds of economics. Also multivariable regression analyses of time series of a large number of countries are not confined to economic phenomena. The spread of interdisciplinary studies is also shown in the way system paradigm has become a widely applied general approach. The author ends with three proposals: let us have a minimum conversancy with other disciplines, support interdisciplinary work, and promote the emergence of a new type of "social scientist".