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The Imperium of the Colonial Tongue? Evidence on Language Policy Preferences in Zambia

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  • Ramachandran, R.
  • Rauh, C.

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa stands out as a part of the world that primarily uses, as its official languages, former colonial languages that are neither spoken at home nor in the community. In this paper, we elicit preferences for colonial versus local languages and analyze the role of perceived costs and returns to different languages. In order to do so, we elicit beliefs about the effects of hypothetical changes to Zambia’s language policy on schooling outcomes, income, and social cohesion. Our results show overwhelming support for the use of the colonial language to act as official. Looking at the determinants, we find that fears of being disadvantaged by the installation of another group’s language, high perceived costs of learning in another group’s language, and lack of association between retaining the elite language and socioeconomic inequality as crucial factors in affecting preferences over language policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramachandran, R. & Rauh, C., 2020. "The Imperium of the Colonial Tongue? Evidence on Language Policy Preferences in Zambia," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 20107, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:20107
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    1. Laitin, David D. & Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2022. "Linguistic diversity, official language choice and human capital," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ethnic cleavages; language policy; stigmatization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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