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Book Translations as Idea Flows: The Effects of the Collapse of Communism on the Diffusion of Knowledge

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  • Abramitzsky, Ran
  • Sin, Isabelle

Abstract

We use book translations as a new measure of international idea flows and study the effects of Communism’s collapse in Eastern Europe on these flows. Using novel data on 800,000 translations and difference-in-differences approaches, we show that while translations between Communist languages decreased by two thirds with the collapse, Western-to-Communist translations increased by a factor of five and quickly converged to Western levels. Convergence was more complete in more economically-useful fields such as the sciences, and was more complete in Satellite than in Soviet countries. These findings help us understand how institutions shape the international diffusion of knowledge.

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  • Abramitzsky, Ran & Sin, Isabelle, 2012. "Book Translations as Idea Flows: The Effects of the Collapse of Communism on the Diffusion of Knowledge," Motu Working Papers 291421, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:motuwp:291421
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.291421
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