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Language as a regional driver of the trade of place-sensitive products: The case of made-in-Italy goods

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  • Amir Maghssudipour
  • Annalisa Caloffi
  • Marco Bellandi
  • Letizia Donati

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between language and international trade of place-sensitive products at a regional level. Focusing on ‘made in Italy’, we assess whether its trade is influenced by Italian migrants and organisations offering Italian language courses in the importing region. To analyse this relationship, we collected an original database of 147 regions, on which we estimated Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood regressions, also controlling for various country effects across trading regions. Results show that the trade of made-in-Italy goods is positively associated with the diffusion of the Italian language in the regions. This does not apply to goods produced in Italy that are not characteristic of ‘made in Italy’.

Suggested Citation

  • Amir Maghssudipour & Annalisa Caloffi & Marco Bellandi & Letizia Donati, 2022. "Language as a regional driver of the trade of place-sensitive products: The case of made-in-Italy goods," Working Papers - Economics wp2022_09.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    • Handle: RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2022_09.rdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    international trade; place-sensitive products; made in Italy; Italian migration; Italian language;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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