关键词: 基本经济概念, 经济原则, 经济规律, 储蓄行为, 认知发展

Abstract: Economic cognition is an important component of children’ s social cognition, and has great impact on children’ s socialization processes. From an early age, children are exposed to a variety of economic phenomena and involved in some simple economic activities in their daily life. While children get older, economic behaviors become increasingly more important for them. The acquisition of economic knowledge can help them understand economic phenomenon, form their own economic opinion, and better deal with all kinds of economic affairs around them. This paper summarized previous research from four aspects. Firstly, we discussed children’s understanding of some basic economic concepts, such as money, bank, interest, income, tax, and ownership. The results demonstrated that children’s understanding of basic economic concepts increased with age, but there were cultural difference (across countries) and some divergence in the developmental trajectory of different economic concepts. Secondly, we reviewed research about children’ s understanding of economic principles, such as the exchange of equal value principle and the fair?distribution principle, from which we concluded that children’s understanding of economic principles also increased with age, and depended on their understanding of basic economic concepts. Thirdly, we listed research about children’s understanding of laws of economics, i. e., the relations of supply, demand, price and sales. Children at about 9 years old had a better grasp of laws of economics than younger children, and children’ s understanding of laws of economics was characterized by three features, that is, by a transition from isolated partial systems, to an increasing integration of understanding; by a transition from understanding of economics as motivated by ethical considerations to a realization that economics has its own logic, distinct from moral considerations, and from one that relies on the motivation of individuals, to one based on an appreciation of the aggregate effects of the actions and desires of groups of people. In addition, cross-cultural studies showed that children’s understanding of laws of economics in China was somewhat different from that in the United States, which may be due to different economic history and market conditions in the two countries. Because the United States carried out market economics earlier than China, American children often resorted to seeking purchase while asking them to reason laws of economics. Finally, we discussed children’s understanding of saving behavior. Although children displayed saving behavior from an early age, they could not understand the saving purpose from different aspects until 12 years old, and at this age, their capability to use saving strategy became more and more skilled. To conclude, we proposed several future directions. First, other important economic phenomena (such as children’ s capability to distinguish value and price, their understanding of the associations between laws of economics and economic behavior) should be investigated. Second, the underlying psychological mechanisms of some economic phenomena should be explored further. Finally, future study should integrate theoretical and educational application studies to identify ways that can promote children’ s economic cognition.

Key words: basic economic concept, principles of economics, laws of economics, saving behavior, cognitive development