IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bge/wpaper/713.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Value of Reciprocal Bilingualism

Author

Listed:
  • Ramon Caminal

Abstract

Some bilingual societies exhibit a distribution of language skills that can- not be explained by economic theories that portray languages as pure communication devices. Such distribution of skills are typically the result of public policies that promote bilingualism among members of both speech communities (reciprocal bilingualism). In this paper I argue that these policies are likely to increase social welfare by diminishing economic and social segmentation between the two communities. However, these gains tend to be unequally distributed over the two communities. As a result, in a large range of circumstances these policies might not draw sufficient support. The model is built upon the communicative value of languages, but also emphasizes the role of linguistic preferences in the behavior of bilingual individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramon Caminal, 2013. "The Economic Value of Reciprocal Bilingualism," Working Papers 713, Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:713
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.barcelonagse.eu/sites/default/files/working_paper_pdfs/713.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonio Di Paolo & Josep Lluís Raymond, 2012. "Language Knowledge and Earnings in Catalonia," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 89-118, May.
    2. Vaillancourt, F., 1982. "The Choice of a Language of Consumption," Cahiers de recherche 8204, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    3. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2008. "Workplace Segregation in the United States: Race, Ethnicity, and Skill," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 459-477, August.
    4. Uriarte Ayo, José Ramón & Iriberri Etxebeste, Nagore, 2011. "Minority Language and the Stability of Bilingual Equilibria," IKERLANAK 2011-45, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    5. Caminal, Ramon, 2010. "Markets and linguistic diversity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 774-790, December.
    6. Krishna Patel & Francis Vella, 2013. "Immigrant Networks and Their Implications for Occupational Choice and Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1249-1277, October.
    7. Sílvio Rendon, 2007. "The Catalan premium: language and employment in Catalonia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(3), pages 669-686, July.
    8. Jeffrey Church & Ian King, 1993. "Bilingualism and Network Externalities," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 26(2), pages 337-345, May.
    9. Javier Ortega & Thomas P. Tangerås, 2008. "Unilingual Versus Bilingual Education: A Political Economy Analysis," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 6(5), pages 1078-1108, September.
    10. S. J. Drinkwater & N. C. O'Leary, 1997. "Unemployment in Wales: Does Language Matter?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(6), pages 583-591.
    11. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2011. "How Many Languages Do We Need? The Economics of Linguistic Diversity," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9481.
    12. Nagore Iriberri & José-Ramón Uriarte, 2012. "Minority language and the stability of bilingual equilibria," Rationality and Society, , vol. 24(4), pages 442-462, November.
    13. Chiswick, Barry R., 2008. "The Economics of Language: An Introduction and Overview," IZA Discussion Papers 3568, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonio Di Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2015. "Returns to Foreign Language Skills in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 407-421, April.
    2. Antonio Di Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2015. "Returns to Foreign Language Skills in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 407-421, April.
    3. Victor Ginsburgh & Jacques Melitz & Farid Toubal, 2017. "Foreign Language Learning and Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 320-361, May.
    4. Ramon Caminal & Lorenzo Cappellari & Antonio Di Paolo, 2018. "Linguistic Skills and the Intergenerational Transmission of Language," Working Papers 1053, Barcelona School of Economics.
    5. Caminal, Ramon & Cappellari, Lorenzo & Di Paolo, A., 2021. "Language-in-education, language skills and the intergenerational transmission of language in a bilingual society," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Jullien, Bruno & Klimenko, Mikhail, 2021. "Language, internet and platform competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    7. Antonio di Paolo, 2011. "Knowledge of catalan, public/prívate sector choice and earnings: Evidence from a double sample selection model," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 197(2), pages 9-35, June.
    8. Markowsky, Eva & Wolf, Fridolin & Schäfer, Marie, 2022. "Immigrant bilingualism in the German labour market: Between human capital, social networks, and ethnic marginalisation," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 68, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.
    9. Ramon Caminal & Antonio Di Paolo, 2019. "Your Language Or Mine? The Noncommunicative Benefits Of Language Skills," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 726-750, January.
    10. Ramon Caminal & Antonio Di Paolo, 2015. "Your Language or Mine?," Working Papers 852, Barcelona School of Economics.
    11. Kentaro Hatsumi, 2023. "Second‐language acquisition behavior and hegemonic language," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(1), pages 3-20, March.
    12. Barañano Mentxaka, Ilaski & Kovarik, Jaromir & Uriarte Ayo, José Ramón, 2014. "Experimental Economics Meets Language Choice," IKERLANAK info:eu-repo/grantAgreeme, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    13. Sperlich, Stefan & Uriarte Ayo, José Ramón, 2014. "The Economics of "Why is it so hard to save a threatened Language?"," IKERLANAK info:eu-repo/grantAgreeme, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    14. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    15. Victor Ginsburgh & Jacques Melitz & Farid Toubal, 2014. "Foreign Language Learning : An Econometric Analysis," Working Papers 2014-21, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    16. Christian Dustmann & Albrecht Glitz & Uta Schönberg & Herbert Brücker, 2016. "Referral-based Job Search Networks," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(2), pages 514-546.
    17. Antonio Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2019. "English skills, labour market status and earnings of Turkish women," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 669-690, November.
    18. Judith K. Hellerstein & Melissa McInerney & David Neumark, 2011. "Neighbors and Coworkers: The Importance of Residential Labor Market Networks," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(4), pages 659-695.
    19. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2021. "Whose Job Is It Anyway? Coethnic Hiring in New US Ventures," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 86-127.
    20. Javier Ortega & Gregory Verdugo, 2015. "Assimilation in multilingual cities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(3), pages 785-815, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    bilingualism; segmentation; linguistic preferences; network externalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:713. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bruno Guallar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bargses.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.