IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cor/louvco/2007062.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economics of literary translation : A simple theory and evidence

Author

Listed:
  • GINSBURGH, Victor

    (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE))

  • WEBER, Shlomo
  • WEYERS, Sheila

    (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE))

Abstract

Books are an important factor of cultural transmission, but need, in most cases, to be translated. According to some authors, this may lead to a form of cultural domination, in particular of English, on other languages. All these papers ignore that thepopulation speaking English as a first language is, with the exception of Mandarin, the largest in the world. It is therefore not surprising that English produces more fiction (and much more scientific literature, as scientists from all countries write more and more in English) than any other language. We develop a theoretical model of translation, which is estimated on the basis of UNESCO translation data. We show that translations from English are dominated by translations from other languages,including Scandinavian ones and French.

Suggested Citation

  • GINSBURGH, Victor & WEBER, Shlomo & WEYERS, Sheila, 2007. "Economics of literary translation : A simple theory and evidence," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2007062, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2007062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sites.uclouvain.be/core/publications/coredp/coredp2007.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    2. Canoy, Marcel & van Ours, Jan C. & van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2006. "The Economics of Books," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 21, pages 721-761, Elsevier.
    3. Chr. Hjorth-Andersen, 2001. "A Model of Translations," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 25(3), pages 203-217, August.
    4. World Bank, 2004. "World Development Indicators 2004," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13890, December.
    5. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Eliana La Ferrara, 2011. "A Generalized Index of Fractionalization," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(312), pages 723-750, October.
    6. World Bank, 2005. "World Development Indicators 2005," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 12426, December.
    7. A S Fotheringham, 1984. "Spatial Flows and Spatial Patterns," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 16(4), pages 529-543, April.
    8. repec:wbk:wbpubs:12425 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Caminal, Ramon, 2010. "Markets and linguistic diversity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 774-790, December.

    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. GINSBURGH, Victor A. & WEBER, Shlomo & WEYERS, Sheila, 2011. "The economics of literary translation: some theory and evidence," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2319, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    2. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    3. Márquez-Ramos, Laura & Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada & Suárez-Burguet, Celestino, 2012. "Trade policy versus trade facilitation: An application using good old OLS," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-38.
    4. Nordås, Hildegunn Kyvik, 2007. "International production sharing: A case for a coherent policy framework," WTO Discussion Papers 11, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    5. NOWAK-LEHMANN D., Felicitas & HERZER, Dierk & VOLLMER, Sebastian, 2007. "The Free Trade Agreement Between Chile And The Eu: Its Potential Impact On Chile’S Export Industry," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 7(1).
    6. Moore, Spencer & Teixeira, Ana C. & Shiell, Alan, 2006. "The health of nations in a global context: Trade, global stratification, and infant mortality rates," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 165-178, July.
    7. Mr. Markus Haacker & Mr. Gonzalo Salinas, 2006. "HIV/AIDS: The Impact on Poverty and Inequality," IMF Working Papers 2006/126, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Mark Stephens, 2005. "A Critical Analysis of Housing Finance Reform in a 'Super' Home-ownership State: The Case of Armenia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(10), pages 1795-1815, September.
    9. Tarp, Finn, 2006. "Aid and Development," MPRA Paper 13171, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Rodrigo R. Soares, 2007. "On the Determinants of Mortality Reductions in the Developing World," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 33(2), pages 247-287, June.
    11. Amjad (edited by), Rashid & Havers (edited by), Julian, 2005. "Jobs for Iraq: an employment and decent work strategy," MPRA Paper 38353, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Soares, Rodrigo R., 2007. "Health and the evolution of welfare across Brazilian municipalities," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 590-608, November.
    13. Gouda Abdel-Khalek & Karima Korayem, 2007. "The Impact of China on the Middle East," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 23(4), pages 397-434, October.
    14. Mark Weisbrot & Dean Baker & David Rosnick, 2005. "Scorecard on Development: 25 Years of Diminished Progress," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2005-30, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    15. Ofuoku, A.U. & Uzokwe, U.N., 2012. "Rural Dwellers’ Perception of Human Trafficking and its Implication for Agricultural Production in Edo State, Nigeria," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 2(03), pages 1-11, September.
    16. Rajesh K. PILLANIA, 2010. "Indo-China Trade: Trends, Composition And Future," Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Financial Management and Accounting Craiova, vol. 5(2(12)/Sum), pages 129-137.
    17. Terry McKinley, 2005. "Why is ‘The Dutch disease’ always a disease? the macroeconomic consequences of scaling up ODA," Working Papers 10, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    18. Ahmet Faruk Aysan & Mustapha Kamel Nabli & Marie-Ange Véganzonès–Varoudakis, 2008. "The Role of Governance Institutions in Private Investment Decisions: The Case of Middle East and North Africa," Working Papers 384, Economic Research Forum, revised 01 Jan 2008.
    19. G. Philippidis & A. I. Sanjuán, 2007. "An Analysis of Mercosur's Regional Trading Arrangements," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 504-531, March.
    20. Vollrath, Thomas L. & Hallahan, Charles B., 2011. "Reciprocal Trade Agreements: Impacts on Bilateral Trade Expansion and Contraction in the World Agricultural Marketplace," Economic Research Report 102755, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    languages; translations; cultural and linguistic distances;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

    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:cor:louvco:2007062. 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: Alain GILLIS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/coreebe.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.