Validating test score interpretations by cross-national comparison: Comparing the results of students from Japan and Germany on an American test of economic knowledge in higher education

Cross-national assessment of students' competences in higher education is becoming increasingly important in many disciplines including economics but there are few available instruments that meet psychological standards for assessing students' economic competence in higher education (HE). One of them is the internationally valid Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE), which has been adapted and employed successfully in HE systems in various countries, but the test results have seldom been used for international comparisons of students' Economic Content Knowledge (ECK). Here, we compare the German and the Japanese test adaptations of the TUCE with reference to the American original in order to determine their suitability for comparative analyses of ECK in HE among these countries. Having critically examined the two test adaptations, we present a comparative analysis of students' test scores in Germany and Japan and evaluate potential differences with regard to students' acquisition of ECK while investigating country-specific influence factors.