IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pab/wpaper/22.02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Brexit and Multilingualism in the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Victor Ginsburgh

    (ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and CORE, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)

  • Juan D. Moreno-Ternero

    (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide)

Abstract

The EU spends more than one billion euros per year ensuring translation and interpretation of 24 languages to preserve multilingualism. We examine how this budget should be fairly allocated, taking into account linguistic and economic realities of each member country. Our analysis tries to estimate the value of keeping English as a procedural language (in fact, almost a lingua franca) in the post-Brexit EU, where, today, just about one percent of the population speaks it as native language.

Suggested Citation

  • Victor Ginsburgh & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2022. "Brexit and Multilingualism in the European Union," Working Papers 22.02, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pab:wpaper:22.02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.upo.es/serv/bib/wps/econ2202.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor Ginsburgh & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2019. "A Lingua Franca in the post-Brexit EU," Working Papers 19.10, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    2. Ginsburgh, Victor & Fidrmuc, Jan & Weber, Shlomo, 2007. "Ever Closer Union or Babylonian Discord? The Official-language Problem in the European Union," CEPR Discussion Papers 6367, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Victor Ginsburgh & Juan D. Moreno‐Ternero, 2018. "Compensation schemes for learning a Lingua Franca in the European Union," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1775-1789, July.
    4. Gans, Joshua S. & Smart, Michael, 1996. "Majority voting with single-crossing preferences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 219-237, February.
    5. Gustavo Bergantiños & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2022. "On the axiomatic approach to sharing the revenues from broadcasting sports leagues," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(2), pages 321-347, February.
    6. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    7. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2005. "Language Disenfranchisement in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 273-286, June.
    8. Castañeda Dower, Paul & Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo, 2017. "Colonial legacy, polarization and linguistic disenfranchisement: The case of the Sri Lankan War," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 440-448.
    9. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-1250.
    10. Ginsburgh, Victor & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Weber, Shlomo, 2017. "Ranking languages in the European Union: Before and after Brexit," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 139-151.
    11. Victor Ginsburgh & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Shlomo Weber, 2005. "Disenfranchisement In Linguistically Diverse Societies: The Case Of The European Union," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(4), pages 946-965, June.
    12. Juan D Moreno-Ternero & John E Roemer, 2006. "Impartiality, Priority, and Solidarity in the Theory of Justice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(5), pages 1419-1427, September.
    13. Weber, Shlomo & Wiesmeth, Hans, 1991. "Economic models of NATO," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 181-197, November.
    14. Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Roemer, John E., 2012. "A common ground for resource and welfare egalitarianism," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 832-841.
    15. Eduardo Zambrano, 2014. "An axiomatization of the human development index," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 42(4), pages 853-872, April.
    16. Victor Ginsburgh & Jacques Melitz & Farid Toubal, 2017. "Foreign Language Learning and Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 320-361, May.
    17. Bergantiños, Gustavo & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D., 2021. "Compromising to share the revenues from broadcasting sports leagues," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 57-74.
    18. Alberto Alesina & Reza Baqir & William Easterly, 1999. "Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1243-1284.
    19. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Shlomo Weber, 2009. "Linguistic Diversity and Redistribution," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(6), pages 1291-1318, December.
    20. Christos Kollias, 2008. "A Preliminary Investigation Of The Burden Sharing Aspects Of A European Union Common Defence Policy," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 253-263.
    21. Koen Decancq & María Ana Lugo, 2013. "Weights in Multidimensional Indices of Wellbeing: An Overview," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 7-34, January.
    22. Thomson,William, 2019. "How to Divide When There Isn't Enough," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107194625, October.
    23. Francesco Amodio & Giorgio Chiovelli, 2018. "Ethnicity and Violence During Democratic Transitions: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 1234-1280.
    24. Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke, 1998. "On Economic Causes of Civil War," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(4), pages 563-573, October.
    25. Thomson, William, 2003. "Axiomatic and game-theoretic analysis of bankruptcy and taxation problems: a survey," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 249-297, July.
    26. Jan Fidrmuc & Victor Ginsburgh & Schlomo Weber, 2007. "Ever Closer Union or Babylonian Discord?," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp887, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    27. Thomson,William, 2019. "How to Divide When There Isn't Enough," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316646441, October.
    28. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2011. "How Many Languages Do We Need? The Economics of Linguistic Diversity," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9481.
    29. Sudhir Anand and Amartya Sen, 1994. "Human development Index: Methodology and Measurement," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-1994-02, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    30. Ginsburgh, Victor & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Weber, Shlomo, 2017. "Ranking languages in the European Union: Before and after Brexit," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 139-151.
    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. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    2. Alcalde-Unzu, Jorge & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Weber, Shlomo, 2022. "The measurement of the value of a language," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    3. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2012. "Culture Languages and Economics," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2012-009, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2016. "Linguistic Diversity, Standardization, and Disenfranchisement: Measurement and Consequences," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/277407, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2013. "Linguistic diversity, standardization and disenfranchisement. Measurement and consequences," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/152436, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Gustavo Bergantiños & Christian Trudeau, 2024. "Monotonicity and the value of a language," Working Papers 2403, University of Windsor, Department of Economics.
    7. Victor Ginsburgh & Juan D. Moreno‐Ternero, 2018. "Compensation schemes for learning a Lingua Franca in the European Union," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1775-1789, July.
    8. Victor GINSBURGH & Shlomo WEBER, 2016. "Linguistic distances and ethnolinguistic fractionalization and disenfranchisement indices," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2855, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    9. Ginsburgh, Victor & Weber, Shlomo, 2015. "Linguistic Distances and their Use in Economics," CEPR Discussion Papers 10640, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Ginsburgh, Victor & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Weber, Shlomo, 2017. "Ranking languages in the European Union: Before and after Brexit," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 139-151.
    11. Klaus Desmet & Michel Breton & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Shlomo Weber, 2011. "The stability and breakup of nations: a quantitative analysis," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 183-213, September.
    12. Paul Castaneda Dower & Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2014. "Colonial Legacy, Linguistic Disenfranchisement and the Civil Conflict in Sri Lanka," Working Papers 2014-011, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    13. Samuel Bazzi & Matthew Gudgeon, 2021. "The Political Boundaries of Ethnic Divisions," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 235-266, January.
    14. Ginsburgh, Victor & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Weber, Shlomo, 2017. "Ranking languages in the European Union: Before and after Brexit," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 139-151.
    15. Вебер Ш. & Давыдов Д.В., 2015. "Экономика Разнообразия: Подходы, Методы, Результаты," Журнал Экономика и математические методы (ЭММ), Центральный Экономико-Математический Институт (ЦЭМИ), vol. 51(4), pages 3-13, октябрь.
    16. Adelaide Baronchelli & Alessandra Foresta & Roberto Ricciuti, 2020. "The Words That Keep People Apart. Official Language, Accountability and Fiscal Capacity," CESifo Working Paper Series 8437, CESifo.
    17. Neriman HOCAOĞLU BAHADIR, 2020. "The official language status of English within the EU institutions after Brexit," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 11, pages 293-308, June.
    18. Gustavo Bergantiños & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2022. "On the axiomatic approach to sharing the revenues from broadcasting sports leagues," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(2), pages 321-347, February.
    19. Zhiling Wang & Thomas de Graaff & Peter Nijkamp, 2023. "Differences in Heterogeneous Returns to Foreign Language Use at Work Among Natives and Migrants in Europe," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 17(1), pages 1-37, June.
    20. Gustavo Bergantiños & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, 2023. "Decentralized revenue sharing from broadcasting sports," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 27-44, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multilingualism; European Union; Brexit; budget sharing; disenfranchisement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    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:pab:wpaper:22.02. 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: Publicación Digital - UPO (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deupoes.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.