The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language

Editor/Author Ginsburgh, Victor and Weber, Shlomo
Publication Year: 2016
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Single-User Purchase Price: $264.00
Unlimited-User Purchase Price: $396.00
ISBN: 978-1-349-67307-0
Category: Business, Finance & Economics - Economics
Image Count: 29
Book Status: Available
Table of Contents

In this handbook, Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber bring together methodological, theoretical, and empirical studies in the economics of language in a single framework of linguistic diversity that reflects the history and contemporary study of the topic.

Share this

This book is found in the following Credo Collections:

Table of Contents

  • List of Figures and Tables
  • Notes on Contributors
  • Introduction - Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber
  • Part I Linguistic Diversity: Origins and Measurement
  • 1 Linguistic Theory, Linguistic Diversity and Whorfian Economics - Nigel Fabb
  • 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
  • 2 Dynamic Models of Language Evolution: The Linguistic Perspective - Andrew D. M. Smith
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Language diversity
  • 2.3 Language change
  • 2.4 Dynamic models of language
  • 2.5 Conclusion
  • 3 Dynamic Models of Language Evolution: The Economic Perspective - Andrew John
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 How economic forces can influence language dynamics
  • 3.3 Feedback mechanisms
  • 3.4 Economic models of language learning and language use
  • 3.5 Dynamic economic models of language use
  • 3.6 Conclusion
  • 4 What Do We Learn from Neurolinguistics? - Mark Leikin
  • 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 Conclusion
  • 5 Linguistic Distances and Ethnolinguistic Fractionalization and Disenfranchisement Indices - Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Languages, dialects and trade languages
  • 5.3 Distances between languages
  • 5.4 The effects of linguistic distances on economic outcomes
  • 5.5 Linguistic distances between groups
  • 5.6 Fractionalization and disenfranchisement indices
  • 6 Ancestry, Language and Culture - Enrico Spolaore and Romain Wacziarg
  • 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
  • 7 Language Learning and Communicative Benefits - Efthymios Athanasiou, Juan D. Moreno-Ternero and Shlomo Weber
  • 7.1 Introduction
  • 7.2 Communicative benefits
  • 7.3 Efficiency
  • 7.4 Efficient choices of official languages
  • 7.5 Conclusion
  • 8 Language and Emotion - Niall Bond and Victor Ginsburgh
  • 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 Conclusion
  • Part II Languages and Markets
  • 9 Common Spoken Languages and International Trade - Peter H. Egger and Farid Toubal
  • 9.1 Introduction
  • 9.2 Common native and spoken languages around the globe and their measures
  • 9.3 A trade economist's stylized view on languages
  • 9.4 Empirical results
  • 9.5 Conclusion
  • 10 Economic Exchange and Business Language in the Ancient World: An Exploratory Review - Nigel Holden
  • 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 Conclusion
  • 11 Language Use in Multinational Corporations: The Role of Special Languages and Corporate Idiolects - Susanne Tietze, Nigel Holden and Wilhelm Barner-Rasmussen
  • 11.1 Introduction
  • 11.2 Cities and the MNC
  • 11.3 Research on language aspects of the MNC: A pragmatic perspective
  • 11.4 Special languages
  • 11.5 Discussion
  • 11.6 Conclusion
  • 12 Language and Migration - Alícia Adserà and Mariola Pytliková
  • 12.1 Introduction
  • 12.2 The role of language in migration decisions
  • 12.3 Language proficiency among migrants
  • 12.4 Language and the returns to human capital
  • 12.5 Language and migrants’ socio-economic assimilation
  • 12.6 Conclusion
  • 13 Translation: Economic and Sociological Perspectives - Johan Heilbron and Gisèle Sapiro
  • 13.1 Introduction
  • 13.2 International translation flows and the global market of translations
  • 13.3 Political, economic and cultural factors
  • 13.4 Selection, import and reception patterns
  • 13.5 Conclusion
  • 14 Languages, Fees and the International Scope of Patenting - Dietmar Harhoff, Karin Hoisl, Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie and Charlotte Vandeput
  • 14.1 Introduction
  • 14.2 Institutional background and hypotheses
  • 14.3 Data and econometric modelling
  • 14.4 Empirical implementation and results
  • 14.5 Conclusion
  • Part III Linguistic Policies and Economic Development
  • 15 Linguistic Cleavages and Economic Development - Klaus Desmet, Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín and Romain Wacziarg
  • 15.1 Introduction
  • 15.2 A phylogenetic approach to linguistic diversity
  • 15.3 Linguistic diversity, redistribution and economic growth
  • 15.4 Linguistic diversity and economic development
  • 15.5 Conclusion
  • 16 Language Choices: Political and Economic Factors in Three European States - Sue Wright
  • 16.1 Introduction
  • 16.2 Nation building
  • 16.3 Language, advantage and group membership
  • 16.4 Conclusion: The role of elites
  • 17 Languages, Regional Conflicts and Economic Development in South Asia - Selma K. Sonntag
  • 17.1 Introduction
  • 17.2 India
  • 17.3 Sri Lanka
  • 17.4 Nepal
  • 17.5 Pakistan
  • 17.6 Conclusion
  • 18 Is Language Destiny? The Origins and Consequences of Ethnolinguistic Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa - Brandon de la Cuesta and Leonard Wantchekon
  • 18.1 Introduction
  • 18.2 Why does Africa have such high levels of linguistic diversity?
  • 18.3 The economic and political effects of linguistic diversity
  • 18.4 Conclusion
  • 19 Languages, Regional Conflicts and Economic Development: Russia - Denis V. Kadochnikov
  • 19.1 Introduction
  • 19.2 The standardization of the Russian language in late medieval Russia (16-17th centuries)
  • 19.3 Language policy in the context of the reforms of Peter the Great and his successors (18th century)
  • 19.4 The role of foreign languages in Russia of the late 18th and early 19th centuries
  • 19.5 Language policy in the context of the territorial expansion of the Russian Empire (17-19th centuries)
  • 19.6 Language and politics in late imperial Russia
  • 19.7 The socialist revolution of 1917 and early Soviet language policy (1920-1930)
  • 19.8 Late Soviet language policy (1930-1980)
  • 19.9 Russian and other languages of the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet period
  • 19.10 Summary: Socio-economic and political factors and implications of language policy in Russia in historical perspective
  • Part IV Globalization and Minority Languages
  • 20 English as a Global Language - Jacques Melitz
  • 20.1 Introduction
  • 20.2 The status of English as a global language
  • 20.3 Areas where English faces sharp limits
  • 20.4 Language learning
  • 20.5 Welfare implications
  • 21 Challenges of Minority Languages - François Grin
  • 21.1 Introduction
  • 21.2 What is a minority language?
  • 21.3 The economics of minority language protection and promotion
  • 21.4 Capacity, opportunity and desire: An overview of the basic model
  • 21.5 Conditions for effective policies
  • 21.6 Guidelines for language policy
  • 21.7 The costs and net value of minority language policies
  • 21.8 About contingent and absolute multilingualism
  • 21.9 Conclusion
  • 22 Language Rights: A Welfare-Economics Approach - Bengt-Arne Wickström
  • 22.1 Introduction
  • 22.2 Basic model
  • 22.3 Modifications due to endogenous preferences
  • 22.4 Modifications due to redistribution
  • 22.5 Conclusion
  • 23 A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Minority Language Use in Multilingual Societies - José-Ramón Uriarte
  • 23.1 Introduction
  • 23.2 Multilingual societies
  • 23.3 The reference point: Linguistic rights, linguistic politeness and expectations
  • 23.4 The maximin language choice
  • 23.5 Information in modern multilingual societies
  • 23.6 The ultimatum language game
  • 23.7 The bilinguals as a player population: The building of linguistic conventions
  • 23.8 Linguistic politeness equilibrium
  • 23.9 Policy suggestions
  • 23.10 Conclusion
  • Name Index
  • Subject Index