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Dialects, cultural identity and economic exchange

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Author Info

  • Oliver Falck

    () (Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

  • Stephan Heblich

    () (Institute of Economics)

  • Alfred Lameli

    () (Research Centre Deutscher Sprachatlas)

  • Jens Südekum

    () (University of Duisburg-Essen)

Abstract

It has long been argued that economic phenomena are affected by culture. However, the causal effect of cultural ties on economic exchange is difficult to identify, chiefly because cultural ties are endogenous to the current level of economic exchange, and because it is hard to separate culture from other influences. In this paper, we address these issues by using a novel measure for cultural identity—historical dialect differences across regions of the same country. We evaluate linguistic micro-data from a unique language survey conducted between 1879 and 1888 in about 45,000 German schools. The recorded geography of dialects comprehensively reflects local cultural differences that have been evolving for centuries and provides an ideal opportunity to isolate cultural costs from other barriers to economic exchange. In a gravity analysis, we then show that cross-regional migration flows in the period 2000–2006 are positively affected by historical dialect similarity, a finding that indicates highly time-persistent cultural borders that impede economic exchange even at a fine geographical scale.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB) in its series Working Papers with number 2010/26.

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Length: 54 pages
Date of creation: 2010
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2010/9/doc2010-26

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Keywords: Dialects; language; culture; internal migration; gravity; Germany;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Nicole B. Simpson & Chad Sparber, 2012. "The Short- and Long-Run Determinants of Less- Educated Immigrant Flows into U.S. States," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1226, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  2. Mélitz, Jacques & Toubal, Farid, 2012. "Native language, spoken language, translation and trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 8994, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Geys, Benny & Osterloh, Steffen, 2012. "Borders as boundaries to fiscal policy interactions? An empirical analysis of politicians' opinions on rivals in the competition for firms," Discussion Papers, Research Professorship & Project "The Future of Fiscal Federalism" SP II 2012-113, Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB).
  4. Falck, Oliver & Guenther, Christina & Heblich, Stephan & Kerr, William R, 2011. "From Russia with Love: The Impact of Relocated Firms on Incumbent Surv ival," Stirling Economics Discussion Papers 2011-17, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
  5. Robert Gold & Oliver Falck & Stephan Heblich, 2011. "The Long Wind of Change. Educational Impacts on Entrepreneurial Intentions," ERSA conference papers ersa11p999, European Regional Science Association.
  6. Christopher-Johannes Schild & Matthias Wrede, 2010. "Cultural Identity, Mobility, and Decentralization," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201016, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
  7. Simpson, Nicole B. & Sparber, Chad, 2012. "The Short- and Long-Run Determinants of Less-Educated Immigration into U.S. States," IZA Discussion Papers 6437, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. Gabriel Felbermayr & Jasmin Gröschl, 2011. "Within US Trade and the Long Shadow of the American Secession," Ifo Working Paper Series Ifo Working Paper No. 117, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
  9. Ludger Wößmann, 2011. "Die Bedeutung von Bildung für die Wirtschaftsentwicklung: Eine neue wirtschaftshistorische Forschungsagenda anhand preußischer Kreisdaten, Teil 2," Ifo Schnelldienst, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 64(01), pages 41-47, 01.
  10. Philipp Kolo, 2012. "Measuring a New Aspect of Ethnicity - The Appropriate Diversity Index," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 221, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
  11. Robert Gold & Oliver Falck & Stephan Heblich, 2011. "Entrepreneurship Education: The Role of Universities," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1202, European Regional Science Association.

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