Do the languages people speak influence their economic decisions and social behavior in multilingual societies? This Handbook brings together scholars from various disciplines to examine the links and tensions between economics and language to find the delicate balance between monetary benefits and psychological costs of linguistic dynamics.

Victor Ginsburgh is Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Brussels, Belgium. He is an author and editor of numerous books and has published papers in theAmerican Economic Review,Econometrica,Journal of Political Economy,Journal of Economic Perspectives,Journal of Economic Theory,Games and Economic Behavior and other leading journals. His most recent publications include theHandbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (2006 and 2013, co-edited with David Throsby) andHow Many Languages Do We Need? (2011, with Shlomo Weber).Shlomo Weber is Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Trustee Professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA, and Academic Head at the Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interactions, New Economic School, Moscow, Russia. His areas of expertise are game theory, public and political economics. He received various prizes, including the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize for outstanding foreign scientists and the Megagrant Prize from the Russian Ministry of Science and Education. He recently publishedThe Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy (2013 in English, and 2014 in Russian, co-edited with Michael Alexeev).

Table of contentsList of FiguresList of TablesNotes on ContributorsVictor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber, IntroductionPart I. Linguistic Diversity: Origins and MeasurementChapter 1. Nigel Fabb, Linguistic Theory, Linguistic Diversity and Whorfian Economics1.1 Introduction1.2 Abstract linguistic form, and the rules and conditions which govern it1.3 Linguistic diversity: An illustrative comparison between two languages1.4 Theories of linguistic diversity1.5 Whorfian psychology and economics: Causal relations between language and thought1.6 Non-whorfian proposals that language influences thought1.7 Conclusion1.8 ReferencesChapter 2. Andrew Smith, Dynamic Models of Language Evolution. The Linguistic Perpective2.1 Introduction2.2 Language diversity2.3 Language change2.4 Dynamic models of language2.5 Conclusion2.6 ReferencesChapter 3. Andrew John, Dynamic Models of Language Evolution. The Economic Perspective3.1 Introduction3.2 How economic forces can influence language dynamics3.3 Conclusion3.4 ReferencesChapter 4. Mark Leikin, What Do We Learn from Neurolinguistics?4.1 Introduction4.2 Terms, definitions and research areas4.3 Brain and language4.4 Evolution of brain and language relationships4.5 Development of brain and language relationships in childhood4.6 The neurolinguistics of bilingualism4.7 Conclusions4.8 ReferencesChapter 5. Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber, Linguistic Distances and Ethno-linguistic Fractionalisation and Disenfranchisement Indices5.1 Introduction5.2 Languages, dialects and trade languages5.3 Distances between languages5.4 The effect of linguistic distances on economic outcomes5.5 Linguistic distances between groups5.6 Fractionalization and disenfranchisement indices5.7 ReferencesChapter 6. Enrico Spolaore and Romain Wacziarg, Ancestry, Language and Culture6.1 Introduction6.2 Ancestry6.3 Culture6.4 Ancestry and culture: A simple conceptual framework6.5 Ancestry and culture: Empirical evidence6.6 Conclusion6.7 ReferencesAppendix: Derivations of the results in Section 6.4Chapter 7. Efthymios Athanasiou, Juan Moreno-Ternero and Shlomo Weber, Language Learning and Communicative Benefits7.1 Introduction7.2 Communicative benefits7.3 Efficiency7.4 Efficient choices of official languages7.5 Conclusion7.6 ReferencesChapter 8. Niall Bond and Victor Ginsburgh, Language and Emotion8.1 Introduction8.2 Emotions and the polyglot8.3 Choosing languages within language communities8.4 'Colonized' writers8.5 Migrating writers8.6 Between languages: Nabokov, Green and Tabucchi8.7 'Denying' the language in which they wrote: Kafka and Derrida8.8 Concluding remarksPart II. Languages and MarketsChapter 9. Peter Egger, and Farid Toubal, Common Spoken Languages and International Trade9.1 Introduction9.2 Common native and spoken languages on the globe and their measures9.3 A trade economists stylized view on languages9.4 Empirical results9.5 Conclusions9.6 ReferencesChapter 10. Nigel Holden, Economic Exchange and Business Language in the Ancient World. An Exploratory Review10.1 Introduction10.2 Language considerations10.3 Context of trade and antiquity10.4 The written word10.5 The spoken language of business in the Ancient World10.6 Commercial terms in various languages of the Ancient World10.7 The businessman as unsavoury personage in Greek and Latin literature10.8 Latin: Not just a lingua franca10.9 Conclusions10.10 ReferencesChapter 11. Susanne Tietze, Nigel Hoden and Wilhelm Barner-Rasmussen, Language Use in Multinational Corporations. Towards a Topography of Languages, Special Languages and Corporate Sociolects11.1 Introduction11.2 Cities and the MNC11.3 Research on languageaspects of the MNC: A pragmatic perspective11.4 Linguascapes, pragmatic spaces and the topography of language11.5 Discussion11.6 Conclusion11.7 ReferencesChapter 12. Alicia Adsera and Mariola Pyltikova, Language and Migration12.1 Introduction12.2 The role of language in migration decisions12.3 Language proficiency among migrants12.4 Language and the returns to human capital12.5 Language and migrants socioeconomic assimilation12.6 Conclusions12.7 ReferencesChapter 13. Johan Heilbron and Gis`ele Sapiro, Translation: Economic and Sociological Perspectives13.1 Introduction13.2 International translation flows and the global market of translations13.3 Political, economic and cultural factors13.4 Selection, import and reception patterns13.5 Conclusions13.6 ReferencesChapter 14. Dietmar Harhoff, Karin Hoisl, Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie and Charlotte Vandeput, Languages, Fees and the International Scopeof Patenting14.1 Introduction14.2 Institutional background and hypotheses14.3 Data and econometric modeling14.4 Empirical implementation and results14.5 Concluding remarks14.6 ReferencesPart III. Linguistic Policies and Economic DevelopmentChapter 15. Klaus Desmet, Ignacio Ortuno-Ort?n and Romain Wacziarg, Linguistic Cleavages and Economic Development15.1 Introduction15.2 A phylogenetic approach to linguistic diversity15.3 Linguistic diversity, redistribution and economic growth15.4 Linguistic diversity and economic development15.5 Conclusion15.6 ReferencesChapter 16. Sue Wright, Language Choices: Political and Economic Factors in Three European States16.1 Introduction16.2 Nation building16.3 Language, advantage and group membership16.4 Conclusion: The role of elites16.5 ReferencesChapter 17. Selma Sonntag, Languages, Regional Conflicts and Economic Development in South Asia17.1 Introduction17.2 India17.3 Sri Lanka17.4 Nepal17.5 Pakistan17.6 Conclusion17.7 ReferencesChapter 18. Brandon de la Cuesta and Leonard Wantchekon, Is Language Destiny? The Origins and Consequences of Ethnolinguistic Diversity in sub-Saharan Africa18.1 Introduction18.2 Why does Africa have such high levels of linguistic diversity?18.3 The economic and political effects of linguistic diversity18.4 Conclusion18.5 ReferencesChapter 19. Denis Kadochnikov, Languages, Regional Conflicts and Economic Development: Russia19.1 Introduction19.2 The standardization of the Russian language in the late medieval Russia (16-17th centuries)19.3 Language policy in the context of the reforms of Peter the Great and his successors (18th century)19.4 The role of foreign languages in Russia of the late 18th early 19th centuries19.5 Language policy in the context of the territorial expansion of the Russian Empire (17-19th centuries)19.6 Language and politics in the late imperial Russia19.7 The Socialist Revolution of 1917 and the early Soviet language policy (1920-1930s)19.8 Late Soviet language policy (1930-1980s)19.9 Russian and other languages of the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet period19.10 Summary: socio-economic and political factors and implications of language policy in Russia in historical perspective19.11 ReferencesPart IV. Globalisation and Minority LanguagesChapter 20. Jacques Melitz, English as a Global Language20.1 Introduction20.2 The status of English as a global language20.3 Areas where English faces sharp limits20.4 Language learning20.5 Welfare implications20.6 ReferencesChapter 21. François Grin, Challenges of Minority Languages21.1 Introduction21.2 What is a minority language?21.3 The economics of minority language protection and promotion21.4 Capacity, opportunity and desire: an overview of the basic model21.5 Conditions for effective policies21.6 Guidelines for language policy21.7 The costs and net value of minority language policies21.8 About contingent and absolute multilingualism21.9 Concluding remarks21.10 ReferencesAppendix Minority languages in a strict sense: selected examplesChapter 22. Bengt-ArneWickstrom, Language Rights: A Welfare-economics Approach22.1 Introduction22.2 Basic model22.3 Modifications due to endogenous preferences22.4 Modifications due to redistribution22.5 Conclusions22.6 ReferencesAppendix. Formal analysisChapter 23. Jose Ramon Uriarte Ayo, A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Minority Language Use in Multilingual Societies23.1 Introduction23.2 Multilingual societies23.3 The reference point: Linguistic rights, linguistic politeness and expectations23.4 The maximin language choice23.5 Information in modern multilingual societies23.6 The ultimatum language game23.7 The bilinguals as a player population:The building of linguistic conventions23.8 Linguistic politeness equilibrium23.9 Policy suggestions23.10 Conclusions23.11 ReferencesIndex