Native language, spoken language, translation and trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Melitz, Jacques; Toubal, Farid
• 署名单位: Heriot Watt University; Paris School of Economics; Universite Paris Saclay; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; ENSAE Paris
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2014.04.004
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 351-363
• 关键词: language; bilateral trade; gravity models

摘要

We construct new series for common native language and common spoken language for 195 countries, which we use together with series for common official language and linguistic proximity in order to draw inferences about (1) the aggregate impact of all linguistic factors on bilateral trade, (2) the separate role of ease of communication as distinct from ethnicity and trust, and (3) the contribution of translation and interpreters to ease of communication. The results show that the impact of linguistic factors, all together, is at least twice as great as the usual dummy variable for common language, resting on official language, would say. In addition, ease of communication plays a distinct role, apart from ethnicity and trust, and so far as ease of communication enters, translation and interpreters are significant. Finally, emigrants have much to do with the role of ethnicity and trust in linguistic influence. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.