Handbook of language & ethnic identity

Handbook of language & ethnic identity Chapter 2: Economics by Francois Grin

Economic Paradigm • Economics has been looking at issues of language & ethnic identity since 1960s • Economics is about choices concerning limited resources • Economic theory assumes that actors behave rationally, according to efficient resource allocation, to maximize their well-being

Historical correlations • 1960s: • language & ethnic identity found to be an explanatory factor for variable of labor income (minority groups associated with lower income) • 1970s: • Human capital theory recognized languages as assets but ignored ethnicity • 1980s-present: • Combination of factors including both ethnic identity (defined by mother tongue) and linguistic human capital (defined by competence in additional languages)

Cause and effect • Up until late 1980s focus was on what economic effects were caused by linguistic factors • Since then there has been investigation of what economic factors might shape linguistic behavior • To what extent are minority languages affected by economic variables?

Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Language and Labor Income • Earning differences between immigrants and native-born workers or between anglophones and francophones (US & Canada) • Gastarbeiter, speakers of minority languages, and competence in English (continental Europe) • Explanatory factors: within-firm communication costs and discrimination

Spread, Survival and Decline of Languages • Why do people learn or use certain languages? • Snowball effect: the more people speak language Y, the more interesting it becomes for more people to learn Y • What factors create this effect, reinforce it, or hinder it? • What are the relative “prices” of using one language over another for bilinguals? (e.g., prices of children’s books)

Language and Economic Activity • Do linguistic factors have an influence on the level of economic activity? How has thinking changed on this issue? • It was previously thought that keeping a minority language was an economic disadvantage, but now it is seen that linguistic diversity can be an advantage

Communication between Language Groups • Can rational-choice and game theory be used to model the choice of language that people will use in different situations? • What are the most important factors? • Efficiency? • Social norms? • What policy should the EU adopt?

Language Policy and Planning • Linguistic environment: • # of speakers, proficiency level, attitude toward languages • status, domains, frequency of use of languages • Language policy seeks to modify the linguistic environment to increase aggregate welfare

Policy Analysis and the Rationale for Government Intervention • “Increasing aggregate welfare” – what does this entail? • 1) Presumes that all issues can be translated into costs & benefits – this makes it hard to justify moral values, human rights, since no one person/group can dictate values • 2) Measurement of costs & benefits is a prerogative of power

Measurement Problems and the Quest for Optimality • It is easy to measure costs (comparison to status quo) • Measuring the benefits of linguistics diversity is much more difficult • Both costs & benefits involve non-market values • Comparison of costs & benefits makes it possible to choose optimal language policy

Efficiency & Fairness • Why are these two goals in conflict? • Efficient use of resources does not necessarily mean that they will get distributed fairly – it is more important for a policy to be just than for it to be efficient • It is therefore better to provide minority language schooling even to a small minority rather than to force that minority to unfairly shoulder the entire burden of linguistic adaptation

Conclusions • Linguistic attributes do have an impact on people’s labor income • Modeling can help us understand language use • Language policy can be evaluated, just like policy on health, environment, etc. • Economic research equates language with ethnicity

Handbook of language & ethnic identity