On May 4, the “Library on Gazetny” hosted an event dedicated to Ran Spiegler’s book The Curious Culture of Economic Theory.
The audience, together with the speakers — Vladimir Avtonomov, Doctor of Economic Sciences and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Kirill Chernovol, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s International Best Practices Analysis Department — discussed the issues raised in the book.
The focus was on the challenges of the interaction between economic theory and practice: under what conditions do theoretical findings begin to be perceived as a basis for applications, how do theorists attempt to influence the evaluation of their ideas, and why do economists so often resort to “rational” explanations of human behavior?
The book was published in April 2026 by Gaidar Institute Press. It will be of interest to anyone who wants to better understand the internal logic of the development of economic science and its hidden mechanisms.