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Zusatztext "This is an essential book for all the policymakers, linguists, and language ideologues who will not understand the mathematics of the economists' calculations." ---Anthony Pym, European Legacy Informationen zum Autor Victor Ginsburgh is professor of economics emeritus, member of the European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics, Brussels, and member of the Center of Operations Research and Econometrics, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Shlomo Weber is the Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Trustee Professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University and professor of economics at the New Economic School, Moscow. Klappentext "A language is both a means of communication and a repository of culture. By limiting the number of languages, we make it easier for people to understand one another, but we leave the world a less interesting place. Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber explore this trade-off and much else in their rich and fascinating book." --Eric S. Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics "The authors succeed brilliantly in laying out a coherent framework that explains the critical and substantive issues for the economics of linguistic diversity." --Antonio Merlo, University of Pennsylvania "Language is what unifies people. It is also what divides them. This paradox was first observed in the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, and the contradiction continues to plague modern times. Ginsburgh and Weber provide a brilliant analysis of this persistent and urgent problem, and they explore this vital question: given that linguistic diversity has costs, how much diversity can we afford in today's world?" --Dean Keith Simonton, University of California, Davis "This book's argument is straightforward, the volume of literature assembled is impressive, and the econometric contribution is excellent. The authors prove that econometric methods can be expanded into a field as challenging as linguistic diversity." --Michael Hutter, Technische Universität Berlin "While there has been a great deal of work on linguistic diversity in economics over the last twenty years, no book has emerged on the topic to date. Examining matters from ethnography to labor, political, cultural, and trade issues, this accessible and important book fills the void." --Jacques Melitz, Heriot-Watt University "There are few subjects as complex and sensitive as the use of languages in a society. The affection of an individual for his language reflects on the whole social group and the language becomes the property of the clan, tribe, territory, and nation. This book describes the range of issues that this raises and the complexities of the trade-off between protecting languages and the possible gains that would result from a reduction of their number." --Michel Vanden Abeele, former director general, Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission Zusammenfassung In the global economy, linguistic diversity influences economic and political development as well as public policies in positive and negative ways. This title examines linguistic diversity as a global social phenomenon and considers what degree of linguistic variety might result in the greatest economic good. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: My Language IsMy Homeland 7 Chapter 2: Linguistic Policies! Disenfranchisement! and Standardization 16 1. Linguistic Diversity: A Brief Look at the Past 16 2. Linguistic Standardization: Roots! Benefits! and Some Examples 18 3. Some Painful Aspects of Standardization 21 4. HowMany Languages: IsMore theMerrier! or Is Small Beautiful? 26 5. Summary 28 Chapter 3: Linguistic! Genetic! and Cultural Distances: How Far Is Nostratic? 29 1. Languages and Dialects 30 2. Distances between Languages 33 3. Distances between Groups 48 4. Summary 55 ...
About the author
Victor Ginsburgh is professor of economics emeritus, member of the European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics, Brussels, and member of the Center of Operations Research and Econometrics, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Shlomo Weber is the Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Trustee Professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University and professor of economics at the New Economic School, Moscow.
