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-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T17:53:34.458Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Evaluating Language Policy and Planning

An Introduction to the Economic Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

By
Michele Gazzola ,
François Grin  and
François Vaillancourt
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

This chapter focuses on the contributions of economists to the selection, design, and evaluation of language policies, particularly since the late 1970s. We show how to perform status analysis using available data on earnings, language skills, language of work, and language of consumption. Then, we turn to the evaluation of the costs and benefits of language policy measures. We add a section on the use of stylized data, an approach common in economic theoretical modeling and empirical evaluation. Finally, this chapter discusses some challenges in understanding the role of economic processes in language issues.

Keywords

Returns to language skillslanguage policy evaluationcounterfactual analysiseffectivenessefficiencycost-effectivenessfairnesscosts and benefits of language policylanguage regimeintellectual property rights
Type
Chapter
Information
Bridging Linguistics and Economics , pp. 109 - 139
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

Berthoud, Anne-Claude, Grin, François & Lüdi, Georges (eds.). 2013. Exploring the Dynamics of Multilingualism. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan & Rampton, Ben (eds.). 2011. Language and superdiversities. Theme Issue of Diversities 13 (2): 1–21.Google Scholar
Coche, Olivier & Vaillancourt, François. 2009. Official Language Policies at the Federal Level in Canada: Costs and Benefits in 2006. Vancouver, Canada: Fraser Institute.Google Scholar
De Rassenfosse, Gaetan & Van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno. 2012. On the price elasticity of demand for patents. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 74 (1): 58–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Rassenfosse, Gaetan & Van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno. 2013. The role of fees in patent systems: Theory and evidence. Journal of Economic Surveys 27 (4): 696–716.Google Scholar
De Schutter, Helder & Robichaud, David (eds.). 2015. Linguistic Justice: Van Parijs and His Critics. New York: Routledge. Special issue of Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (Vol. 18, Issue 2).Google Scholar
Edwards, John. 2012. Multilingualism: Understanding Linguistic Diversity. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Fürst, Guillaume & Grin, François. 2018. Multilingualism and creativity: A multivariate approach. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39 (4): 341–55.Google Scholar
Gazzola, Michele. 2014. The Evaluation of Language Regimes: Theory and Application to Multilingual Patent Organisations. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Gazzola, Michele. 2015. Identifying and mitigating linguistic inequalities in the management of patent information in Europe. World Patent Information 40: 43–50.Google Scholar
Gazzola, Michele. 2017. Multilingualism and the international patent system: An assessment of the fairness of the language policy of WIPO. Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, 17 (3): 349–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gazzola, Michele & Volpe, Alessia. 2014. Linguistic justice in IP policies: Evaluating the language regime of the European Patent Office. European Journal of Law and Economics 38: 47–70.Google Scholar
Gazzola, Michele & Wickström, Bengt-Arne (eds.). 2016. The Economics of Language Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gazzola, Michele, Grin, François & Wickström, Bengt-Arne. 2016. A concise bibliography of language economics. In: The Economics of Language Policy, ed. by Gazzola, Michele & Wickström, Bengt-Arne, pp. 53–92. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gazzola, Michele, Templin, Torsten & Wickström, Bengt-Arne (eds.). 2018. Language Policy and Linguistic Justice: Economic, Philosophical and Sociolinguistic Approaches. Berlin, Germany: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo (eds.). 2016. The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grin, François. 1999. Compétences et récompenses. La valeur des langues en Suisse. Fribourg, Switzerland: Éditions universitaires.Google Scholar
Grin, François. 2001. English as economic value: Tools, facts and fallacies. World Englishes 20 (1): 65–78.Google Scholar
Grin, François. 2003a. Diversity as paradigm, analytical device, and policy goal. In: Language Rights and Political Theory, ed. by Kymlicka, Will & Patten, Alan, pp. 169–88. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grin, François. 2003b. Language planning and economics. Current Issues in Language Planning 4 (1): 1–66.Google Scholar
Grin, François. 2016. 50 years of economics in language policy: Critical assessment and priorities. In: The Economics of Language Policy, ed. by Michele, Gazzola & Bengt-Arne, Wickström, pp. 20–53. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Grin, François. 2018. On some fashionable terms in multilingualism research: Critical assessment and implications for language policy. In: The Politics of Multilingualism: Europeanisation, Globalisation and Linguistic Governance, ed. by Peter, A. Kraus & Grin, François, pp. 247–74. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Grin, François, Sfreddo, Claudio & Vaillancourt, François. 2010. The Economics of the Multilingual Workplace. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grin, François & Vaillancourt, François. 1999. The Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation of Minority Language Policies: Case Studies from Wales, Ireland, and the Basque Country. Flensburg, Germany: European Centre for Minority Issues.Google Scholar
Grin, François & Vaillancourt, François. 2000. The Choice of a Language of Instruction: The Economic Aspects. Washington, DC: The World Bank Institute.Google Scholar
Grin, François & Vaillancourt, François. 2012. Multilingualism in economic activity. In: The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ed. by Carol, A. Chapelle. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9781405198431. Last accessed October 16, 2019.Google Scholar
Grin, François & Vaillancourt, François. 2015. The economics of language policy: An introduction to evaluation work. In: Research Methods in Language Policy and Planning: A Practical Guide, ed. by Hult, Francis M. & Johnson, David Cassels, pp. 118–29. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Grin, François & Gazzola, Michele. 2013. Assessing efficiency and fairness in multilingual communication: Theory and application through indicators. In: Exploring the Dynamics of Multilingualism, ed. by Berthoud, Anne-Claude, Grin, François & Lüdi, Georges, pp. 365–86. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Léger, Rémi & Lewis, Huw (eds.). 2017. Normative political theory’s contribution to language policy research. Special issue of Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38 (7): 577–83.Google Scholar
May, Stephen. 2012. Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language, 2nd ed. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2016: Superdiversity and why it isn’t: reflections on terminological innovation and academic branding. In: Sloganizations in Language Education Discourse, ed. by Breidbach, Stephan, Küster, Lutz & Schmenk, Barbara. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Peled, Yael, Ives, Peter & Ricento, Thomas. 2014. Introduction to the thematic issue: Language policy and political theory. Language Policy 13 (4): 295–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, William & O’Regan, John. 2018. Fetishism and the language commodity: A materialist critique. Language Sciences. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2018.05.009. Last accessed October 16, 2019. Last accessed October 16, 2019.Google Scholar
Sonntag Selma, K. & Linda, Cardinal. 2015. State traditions and language regimes: Conceptualizing language policy choices. In: State Traditions and Language Regimes, ed. by Cardinal, Linda & Sonntag, Selma K., pp. 3–28. Montreal, Québec: McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Vaillancourt, François. 1983. The economics of language and language planning. Language Problems and Language Planning 7: 162–78. Reprinted in Lamberton, Donald M. (ed.). 2002. The Economics of Language, pp. 9–24. London: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Vaillancourt, François. 1985. Le choix de la langue de consommation. In: Economie et langue, ed. by Vaillancourt, François, pp. 209–20. Québec, Canada: Conseil de la langue française. Available at: www.cslf.gouv.qc.ca/bibliotheque-virtuelle/publication-html/?tx_iggcpplus_pi4%5bfile%5d=publications/pubd120/d120tab5a.html#ti. Last accessed October 15, 2019. Last accessed October 15, 2019.Google Scholar
Vaillancourt, François Julien Tousignant, Chatel-De Repentigny, Joëlle & Coutu-Mantha, Simon. 2013. Revenus de travail et rendement des attributs linguistiques au Québec en 2005 et depuis 1970. Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques 39 (Suppl. 1): 25–40.Google Scholar
Vaillancourt, François René Champagne & Lefebvre, Lise. 1994. L’usage du français au travail par les francophones du Québec : une analyse économique. In: Langues et Sociétés en Contact, ed. by Martel, Pierre & Maurais, Jacques, pp. 483–93. Tübingen, Germany: Niemeyer-Canadiana Romanica.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
×