Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T02:12:36.329Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Economists Do Need Linguists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

By
Victor Ginsburgh  and
Shlomo Weber
Edited by
Cécile B. Vigouroux  and
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Cécile B. Vigouroux
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Salikoko S. Mufwene
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Get access

Summary

We examine the notion of linguistic and other types of diversity that have become an important factor in evaluating economic, political, and societal progress. While most of the existing research on the measurement of diversity has been focused either on the number and size of different groups, this approach fails to take into account the degree of their distinctiveness. It is thus important to incorporate the notion of distances or dissimilarity between groups. We discuss various types of indices and their impact (positive or negative) on economic and political outcomes. We also use linguistic distances to explain economic behavior such as trade, migrations, translations, and acquiring new languages.

Keywords

Fractionalizationdisenfranchisementstandardizationlinguistic distancestrademigrationstranslationsacquiring languages
Type
Chapter
Information
Bridging Linguistics and Economics , pp. 56 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James. 2001. The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation. American Economic Review 91: 1369–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aladysheva, Anastasia. 2012. The echo of Stalinism and the determinants of social and institutional trust in contemporary Russia. Ph.D. thesis, Department of International Economics, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Devleeschouwer, Arvind, Easterly, William, Kurlat, Sergio & Wacziarg, Romain. 2003. Fractionalization. Journal of Economic Growth 8: 155–94.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina. 2011. Segregation and the quality of government in a cross-section of countries. American Economic Review 101: 1872–911.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto & La Ferrara, Eliana. 2005. Ethnic diversity and economic performance. Journal of Economic Literature 43: 762–800.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Baqir, Reza & Easterly, William. 1999. Public goods and ethnic divisions. Quarterly Journal of Economics 114: 1243–84.Google Scholar
Annett, Anthony. 2001. Social fractionalization, political instability, and the size of the government. IMF Staff Papers 46: 561–92.Google Scholar
Arcand, Jean-Louis & Grin, François. 2010. Language in economic development: Is English special and is linguistic fragmentation bad? In: English and Development, ed. by Erling, Elisabeth & Seargeant, Philip, pp. 243–66. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Arcand, Jean-Louis, Guillaumont, Patrick & Guillaumont-Jeanneney, Sylviane. 2000. How to make a tragedy: On the alleged effect of ethnicity on growth. Journal of International Development 12: 925–38.Google Scholar
Atlas Narodov Mira. 1964. The Miklucho-Maklai Ethnological Institute at the Department of Geodesy and Cartography of the State Geological Committee of the Soviet Union. Moscow.Google Scholar
Baldwin, Kate & Huber, John. 2010. Economic versus cultural differences: Forms of ethnic diversity and public goods provision. American Political Science Review 104: 644–62.Google Scholar
Beine, Michel, Docquier, Frédéric & Özden, Caglar. 2011. Diasporas. Journal of Development Economics 95: 30–41.Google Scholar
Bossert, Walter, D’Ambrosio, Conchita & La Ferrara, Eliana. 2011. A generalized index of fractionalization. Economica 78: 723–50.Google Scholar
Bretton, Henry. 1976. Political science, language, and politics. In: Language and Politics, ed. by O’Barr, W. M. & O’Barr, J. F.. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Campos, Nauro, Saleh, Ahmad & Kuzeyev, Vitaliy. 2001. Dynamic ethnic fractionalization and economic growth. Journal of International Trade and Economics Development 20: 225–45.Google Scholar
De Swaan, Abram. 2001. Words of the World. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Desmet, Klaus, Ortuno-Ortin, Ignacio & Wacziarg, Romain. 2012. The political economy of ethnolinguistic cleavages. Journal of Development Economics 97: 322–38.Google Scholar
Desmet, Klaus, Ortuno-Ortin, Ignacio & Wacziarg., Romain 2017. Culture, ethnicity and diversity. American Economic Review 107: 2479–513.Google Scholar
Desmet, Klaus, Ortuno-Ortin, Ignacio & Weber, Shlomo. 2009. Linguistic diversity and redistribution. Journal of the European Economic Association 7: 1291–318.Google Scholar
Desmet, Klaus, Le Breton, Michel, Ortuno-Ortin, Ignacio & Weber, Shlomo 2011. Break-up of countries and unions: Simple theory and quantitative analysis. Journal of Economic Growth 16: 183–213.Google Scholar
Dryer, Mathew & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). 2013. The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Available at: http://wals.info, accessed December 27, 2014.Google Scholar
Dyen, Isidore, Kruskal, Joseph B. & Black, Paul. 1992. An Indo-European classification: A lexicostatistical experiment. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 82. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Easterly, William & Levine, Ross. 1997. Africa’s growth tragedy: Policies and ethnic divisions. Quarterly Journal of Economics 112: 1203–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eifert, Benn, Miguel, Edward & Posner, Daniel. 2010. Political competition and ethnic identification in Africa. American Journal of Political Science 54: 494–510.Google Scholar
Englebert, Pierre, Tarango, Stacy & Carter, Matthew. 2002. Dismemberment and suffocation: A contribution to the debate on African boundaries. Pomplona College. Comparative Political Studies 35(10): 1093–118.Google Scholar
Falck, Oliver, Heblich, Stephan, Lameli, Alfred & Südekum, Jens. 2010. Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic Exchange. IZA Working Paper 4743. University of Sterling.Google Scholar
Fearon, James. 2003. Ethnic and cultural diversity by country. Journal of Economic Growth 8: 195–222.Google Scholar
Fearon, James & Laitin, David. 1999. Weak states, rough terrain, and large ethnic violence since 1945. Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, GA.Google Scholar
Fearon, James & Laitin, David. 2003. Ethnicity, insurgency and civil war. American Political Science Review 97: 75–90.Google Scholar
Fidrmuc, Jan & Fidrmuc, Jarko. 2009. Foreign Languages and Trade. CEPR Discussion Paper 7228. London: Center for Economic Policy Research.Google Scholar
Fidrmuc, Jan & Ginsburgh, Victor. 2007. Languages in the European Union: The quest for equality and its costs. European Economic Review 51: 1351–69.Google Scholar
Fidrmuc, Jan, Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo. 2007. Ever Closer Union or Babylonian Discord? The Official-Language Problem in the European Union. CEPR Discussion Paper 6367. London: Center for Economic Policy Research.Google Scholar
Fidrmuc, Jan, Ginsburgh, Victor, & Weber, Shlomo. 2009. Voting on the choice of core languages in the European Union. European Journal of Political Economy 25: 56–62.Google Scholar
Fishman, Joshua. 1968. Some contrasts between linguistically homogeneous and linguistically heterogeneous polities. In: Language Problems of Developing Nations, ed. by Fishman, Joshua, Ferguson, Charles & Dasgupta, Jyotirinda. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Florida, Richard. 2002. The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Florida, Richard & Gates, Gary. 2001. Technology and Tolerance: The Importance of Diversity to High-Tech Growth. Discussion Paper. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute.Google Scholar
Frankel, David & Volij, Oscar. 2007. Measuring Segregation. Staff General Research Papers 12818. Iowa State University, Department of Economics.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor, Toubal, Farid, & Melitz, Jacques. 2014. Foreign Language Learning. CEPR Discussion Paper 10101. London: Center for Economic Policy Research.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor, Ortuno-Ortin, Ignacio & Weber, Shlomo. 2005. Disenfranchisement in linguistically diverse societies. The case of the European Union. Journal of the European Economic Association 3: 946–64.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo. 2005. Language disenfranchisement in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies 43: 273–86.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo. 2011. How Many Languages Do We Need? The Economics of Linguistic Diversity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo. 2014. Culture, languages, and economics. In: Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, ed. by Ginsburgh, Victor & Throsby, David, Vol. 2. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor, Weber, Shlomo & Weyers, Sheila. 2011. The economics of literary translation. A simple theory and evidence. Poetics 39: 228–46.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph. 1956. The measurement of linguistic diversity. Language 32: 109–15.Google Scholar
Hofstede, Geert. 2001. Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across Nations. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1988 [1836]. The Diversity of Human Language-Structure and Its Influence on the Mental Development of Mankind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuijs, Louis. 2005. The Impact of Ethnic Heterogeneity on the Quantity and the Quality of Public Spending. IMF Working Paper 00/49. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
La Porta, Raphael, Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio, Shleifer, Andrei & Vichny, Robert. 1999. The quality of government. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 15: 222–79.Google Scholar
Laitin, David. 2000. What is a language community? American Journal of Political Science 44: 142–55.Google Scholar
Lazear, Edward. 1999. Globalization and the market for teammates. Economic Journal 109: 15–40.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. Paul. (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas, TX: SIL International.Google Scholar
Mauro, Paolo. 1995. Corruption and growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 110: 681–712.Google Scholar
Melitz, Jacques & Toubal, Farid. 2014. Native language, spoken language, translation and trade. Journal of International Economics 93: 351–63.Google Scholar
Montalvo, Jose & Reynal-Querol, Marta. 2003. Religious polarization and economic development. Economic Letters 80: 201–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nettle, Daniel. 2000. Linguistic fragmentation and the wealth of nations: The Fishman-Pool hypothesis re-examined. Economic Development and Cultural Change 48: 335–48.Google Scholar
Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Peri, Giovanni. 2005. Cities and cultures. Journal of Urban Economics 58: 304–37.Google Scholar
Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Peri, Giovanni. 2006. The economic value of cultural diversity: Evidence from US cities. Journal of Economic Geography 6: 9–44.Google Scholar
Phillipson, Robert & Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. 1995. Language rights in postcolonial Africa. In: Linguistic Human Rights: Overcoming Linguistic Discrimination, ed. by Phillipson, Robert, Rannut, Mart & Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove. Berlin and New York: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Pool, Jonathan. 1972. National development and language diversity. In: Advances in the Sociology of Language, ed. by Fishman, Joshua. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel. 2004. Measuring ethnic fractionalization in Africa. American Journal of Political Science 48: 849–63.Google Scholar
Saxenian, AnnaLee. 1999. Silicon Valley’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Shalom. 2011. National culture as value orientations: Consequences and cultural distance. In: Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, ed. by Ginsburgh, Victor & Throsby, David, Vol. 2. Amsterdam and New York: North Holland.Google Scholar
Selten, Reinhard & Pool, Jonathan. 1991. The distribution of foreign language skills as a game equilibrium. In: Game Equilibrium Models, ed. by Selten, Reihard, Vol. 4. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Sonntag, Selma. 2016. Languages, regional conflicts and economic development in South Asia. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language, ed. by Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Special Eurobarometer 243. 2006. Europeans and Their Languages. Brussels: European Commission.Google Scholar
Steiner, George. 1992. After Babel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swadesh, Morris. 1952. Lexico-statistic dating of prehistoric ethnic contacts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 96: 121–37.Google Scholar
Tinbergen, Jan. 1962. Shaping the World Economy: Suggestions for an International Economic Policy. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×