How Many Languages Do We Need?: The Economics of Linguistic Diversity

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: My Language IsMy Homeland 7 Chapter 2: Linguistic Policies, Disenfranchisement, and Standardization 16 1. Linguistic Diversity: A Brief Look at the Past 16 2. Linguistic Standardization: Roots, Benefits, and Some Examples 18 3. Some Painful Aspects of Standardization 21 4. HowMany Languages: IsMore theMerrier, or Is Small Beautiful? 26 5. Summary 28 Chapter 3: Linguistic, Genetic, and Cultural Distances: How Far Is Nostratic? 29 1. Languages and Dialects 30 2. Distances between Languages 33 3. Distances between Groups 48 4. Summary 55 Chapter 4: DistancesMatter 56 1. International Trade 57 2. Migrations 63 3. Literary Translations 65 4. The Eurovision Song Contest: Is Voting Political or Cultural? 74 5. Summary 82 Chapter 5: Individual Communicative Benefits 84 1. Modeling Language Learning 86 2. Demand Functions for Languages 93 3. Private Returns on Languages 98 4. Summary 107 Chapter 6: Diversity and Disenfranchisement Indices 108 1. Fractionalization and Polarization Indices 110 2. Disenfranchisement Indices 126 3. Links between Fractionalization, Disenfranchisement, and Communication Indices 137 4. Summary 139 5. Appendix: Numerical Calculation of the Various Disenfranchisement Indices 140 Chapter 7: Diversity and Disenfranchisement: Applications 142 1. Fractionalization and Polarization Indices 143 2. Disenfranchisement Indices: The Example of the EU 151 3. Summary 160 Chapter 8: Multilingualism in the European Union: A Case Study in Linguistic Policy 162 1. Twenty-three Languages, and More to Come 162 2. Possible Solutions 177 3. Summary 199 Conclusions 201 Bibliography 205 Index 223

Victor Ginsburgh is professor of economics emeritus, member of the European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics, Brussels, and member of the Center of Operations Research and Econometrics, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Shlomo Weber is the Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Trustee Professor of Economics at Southern Methodist University and professor of economics at the New Economic School, Moscow.

"A language is both a means of communication and a repository of culture. By limiting the number of languages, we make it easier for people to understand one another, but we leave the world a less interesting place. Victor Ginsburgh and Shlomo Weber explore this trade-off and much else in their rich and fascinating book."--Eric S. Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics