Author: Yury M. Beryozkin

Abstract: Vladimir Yefimov’s article “Оriginal Institutionalism and Economic Education” is considered (Izvestiya Uralskogo gosudarstvennogo ekonomicheskogo universiteta. 2014. No. 6 (56); 2015. No. 2 (58)), which was devoted to the reasons behind lost connection between economic education and public reality (named “autism” by the author). The paper interprets the author’s positions and critically examines his proposals concerning the reform of the content of economic education in Russia from the perspective of their practical implementation. In addition, the paper presents alternative proposals on improvement of the content of education in economic universities based on the principle of activity approach. The main idea of these proposals is that it is necessary to reject today’s reduced notion of human activities traditionally called “economics” which only fixes (registers) with outdated scientific means the material “tracks” (secondary effects – products of activities, goods etc.) of a complex activities of people without looking at the activities themselves. This is the major reason behind economists’ “autism” or their isolation from real practical activities. In order to gradually overcome the “epidemic of autism” among economists it is necessary to teach them social-engineering (activity) disciplines.

Keywords: education; education reform; content of economic education; institutional economics; activity approach.