Read more
Do the languages people speak influence their economic decisions and social behavior in multilingual societies? This Handbook brings together scholars from various disciplines to examine the links and tensions between economics and language to find the delicate balance between monetary benefits and psychological costs of linguistic dynamics.
List of contents
Table of contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Notes on Contributors
Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber, Introduction
Part I. Linguistic Diversity: Origins and Measurement
Chapter 1. Nigel Fabb, Linguistic Theory, Linguistic Diversity and Whorfian Economics
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Abstract linguistic form, and the rules and conditions which govern it
1.3 Linguistic diversity: An illustrative comparison between two languages
1.4 Theories of linguistic diversity
1.5 Whorfian psychology and economics: Causal relations between language and thought
1.6 Non-whorfian proposals that language influences thought
1.7 Conclusion
1.8 References
Chapter 2. Andrew Smith, Dynamic Models of Language Evolution. The Linguistic Perpective
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Language diversity
2.3 Language change
2.4 Dynamic models of language
2.5 Conclusion
2.6 References
Chapter 3. Andrew John, Dynamic Models of Language Evolution. The Economic Perspective
3.1 Introduction
3.2 How economic forces can influence language dynamics
3.3 Conclusion
3.4 References
Chapter 4. Mark Leikin, What Do We Learn from Neurolinguistics?
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Terms, definitions and research areas
4.3 Brain and language
4.4 Evolution of brain and language relationships
4.5 Development of brain and language relationships in childhood
4.6 The neurolinguistics of bilingualism
4.7 Conclusions
4.8 References
Chapter 5. Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber, Linguistic Distances and Ethno-linguistic Fractionalisation and Disenfranchisement Indices
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Languages, dialects and trade languages
5.3 Distances between languages
5.4 The effect of linguistic distances on economic outcomes
5.5 Linguistic distances between groups
5.6 Fractionalization and disenfranchisement indices
5.7 References
Chapter 6. Enrico Spolaore and Romain Wacziarg, Ancestry, Language and Culture
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Ancestry
6.3 Culture
6.4 Ancestry and culture: A simple conceptual framework
6.5 Ancestry and culture: Empirical evidence
6.6 Conclusion
6.7 References
Appendix: Derivations of the results in Section 6.4
Chapter 7. Efthymios Athanasiou, Juan Moreno-Ternero and Shlomo Weber, Language Learning and Communicative Benefits
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Communicative benefits
7.3 Efficiency
7.4 Efficient choices of official languages
7.5 Conclusion
7.6 References
Chapter 8. Niall Bond and Victor Ginsburgh, Language and Emotion
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Emotions and the polyglot
8.3 Choosing languages within language communities
8.4 'Colonized' writers
8.5 Migrating writers
8.6 Between languages: Nabokov, Green and Tabucchi
8.7 'Denying' the language in which they wrote: Kafka and Derrida
8.8 Concluding remarks
Part II. Languages and Markets
Chapter 9. Peter Egger, and Farid Toubal, Common Spoken Languages and International Trade
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Common native and spoken languages on the globe and their measures
9.3 A trade economists stylized view on languages
9.4 Empirical results
9.5 Conclusions
9.6 References
Chapter 10. Nigel Holden, Economic Exchange and Business Language in the Ancient World. An Exploratory Review
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Language considerations
10.3 Context of trade and antiquity
10.4 The written word
10.5 The spoken language of business in the Ancient World
10.6 Commercial terms in various languages of the Ancient World
10.7 The businessman as unsavoury personage in Greek and Latin literature
10.8 Latin: Not just a lingua franca
10.9 Conclusions
10.10 References
Chapter 11. Susanne Tietze, Nigel Hoden and Wilhelm Barner-Rasmussen, Language Use in Multinational Corporations. Towards a Topography of Languages, Special Languages and Corporate Sociolects
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Cities and the MNC
11.3 Research on language
About the author
Victor Ginsburgh is Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Brussels, Belgium. He is an author and editor of numerous books and has published papers in the
American Economic Review
,
Econometrica
,
Journal of Political Economy
,
Journal of Economic Perspectives
,
Journal of Economic Theory
,
Games and Economic Behavior
and other leading journals. His most recent publications include the
Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture
(2006 and 2013, co-edited with David Throsby) and
How Many Languages Do We Need?
(2011, with Shlomo Weber).
Shlomo Weber is Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Trustee Professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA, and Academic Head at the Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions, New Economic School, Moscow, Russia. His areas of expertise are game theory, public and political economics. He received various prizes, including the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize for outstanding foreign scientists and the Megagrant Prize from the Russian Ministry of Science and Education. He recently published
The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy
(2013 in English, and 2014 in Russian, co-edited with Michael Alexeev).
Summary
Do the languages people speak influence their economic decisions and social behavior in multilingual societies? This Handbook brings together scholars from various disciplines to examine the links and tensions between economics and language to find the delicate balance between monetary benefits and psychological costs of linguistic dynamics.
Additional text
“This volume is clearly an important contribution to the literature on the economics of language. It is comprehensive: the topics cover the full range of issues that we would want to see addressed. … While few will want to read it from cover to cover, those with even a passing interest in the nexus of language and economics, regardless of their own discipline, will find individual chapters invaluable.” (Barry R. Chiswick, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 54 (3), September, 2016)
Report
"This volume is clearly an important contribution to the literature on the economics of language. It is comprehensive: the topics cover the full range of issues that we would want to see addressed. ... While few will want to read it from cover to cover, those with even a passing interest in the nexus of language and economics, regardless of their own discipline, will find individual chapters invaluable." (Barry R. Chiswick, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 54 (3), September, 2016)
