IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/js6z2.html

Industrialization and Bilingualism in India

Author

Listed:
  • Clingingsmith, David

    (Case Western Reserve University)

Abstract

Many of the world’s poorest people live in linguistically diverse countries where bilingualism is a distinct and important form of human capital. When communication among workers increases productivity, there are economic incentives to learn a second language. I study how the growth of industrial employment increased bilingualism in India between 1931 and 1961. Indian factories were linguistically mixed. I exploit industrial clustering and sectoral demand growth for identification. The effect on bilingualism was strongest in import-competing districts and among local linguistic minorities. Industrialization also increased literacy. Bilingualism was mainly the result of learning, rather than than migration or assimilation. It was not a byproduct of becoming literate. My results shed new light on human capital investment in developing economies and on the long-run evolution of languages and cultures.

Suggested Citation

  • Clingingsmith, David, 2017. "Industrialization and Bilingualism in India," SocArXiv js6z2, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:js6z2
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/js6z2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5a315060ba26c6000d17baa4/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/js6z2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edward P. Lazear, 1999. "Culture and Language," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 95-126, December.
    2. Kevin Lang, 1986. "A Language Theory of Discrimination," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(2), pages 363-382.
    3. Blattman, Christopher & Hwang, Jason & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2007. "Winners and losers in the commodity lottery: The impact of terms of trade growth and volatility in the Periphery 1870-1939," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 156-179, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. repec:osf:socarx:js6z2_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Chong, Alberto E., 2006. "Does It Matter How People Speak?," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1946, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. He, Simin, 2019. "Minority advantage and disadvantage in competition and coordination," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 464-482.
    4. Di Giacomo, Marina & Perucca, Giovanni & Piacenza, Massimiliano & Turati, Gilberto, 2024. "Immigrants' clusters and unequal access to healthcare treatments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    5. Aurélien Portuese, 2012. "Law and economics of the European multilingualism," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 279-325, October.
    6. Rebitzer, James B. & Taylor, Lowell J., 2011. "Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motives: Standard and Behavioral Approaches to Agency and Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 8, pages 701-772, Elsevier.
    7. Melitz, Jacques, 2012. "A framework for analyzing language and welfare," CEPR Discussion Papers 9091, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo, 2016. "Field Experiments on Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 22014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jain, Tarun, 2011. "Common tongue: The impact of language on economic performance," MPRA Paper 34423, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo, 2016. "Field Experiments on Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 22014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Battu, Harminder & Mwale, McDonald & Zenou, Yves, 2003. "Do Oppositional Identities Reduce Employment for Ethnic Minorities?," Working Paper Series 603, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    12. Tamura, Robert, 2001. "Translators: Market makers in merging markets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(11), pages 1775-1800, November.
    13. Ginsburgh, Victor & Ortuño-Ortín, Ignacio & Weber, Shlomo, 2007. "Learning foreign languages: Theoretical and empirical implications of the Selten and Pool model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(3-4), pages 337-347.
    14. Sílvio Rendon, 2007. "The Catalan premium: language and employment in Catalonia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(3), pages 669-686, July.
    15. Armstrong, Alex, 2015. "Equilibria and efficiency in bilingual labour markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 204-220.
    16. Susan W. Parker & Luis Rubalcava & Graciela Teruel, 2002. "Schooling Inequality among the Indigenous: A Problem of Resources or Language Barriers?," Research Department Publications 3134, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    17. Victor Ginsburgh, 2008. "Multilingualism," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7296, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2003. "Ethnicity, Language, and Workplace Segregation: Evidence from a New Matched Employer-Employee Data Set," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 71-72, pages 1-15.
    19. Alessandro Sontuoso & Sudeep Bhatia, 2021. "A notion of prominence for games with natural‐language labels," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(1), pages 283-312, January.
    20. Laura Giuliano & Michael R Ransom, 2013. "Manager Ethnicity and Employment Segregation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(2), pages 346-379, April.
    21. Christopher Ellis & Jon C. Thompson & Jiabin Wu, 2020. "Labor market characteristics and cultural choice," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(5), pages 1584-1617, September.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:osf:socarx:js6z2. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    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.