The Economics of the Multilingual Workplace

by Grin; Francois

• ISBN13: 9780415800181
• ISBN10: 0415800188
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume looks at the relationship between linguistic diversity and the economic sector, in particular the operation of firms. It develops a novel perspective combining language economics, which helps to fill gaps in our understanding of the role of languages in economic activity, and a broader sociolinguistic perspective on macro-level language policy issues.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Economic Perspective on Multilingualism	p. 9
Language at Work: Identifying the Issue	p. 11
Enduring Concerns, Little-Known Processes	p. 11
The Economic Analysis of the Firm: A First Approach to the Inclusion of Linguistic Diversity	p. 17
On the Linguistics of the Economy v. the Economics of Language	p. 28
A Tentative Mapping	p. 28
Bourdieu and His Heirs: A Glimpse at Some Sociolinguistic Perspectives	p. 30
Pragmatics-oriented Perspectives	p. 34
Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis	p. 35
Additional Perspectives on Language in the Economy	p. 37
A Gallery of Empirical Findings	p. 39
Descriptive Results	p. 39
Edging Closer to Economic Effects	p. 45
Different Paths to Estimation	p. 48
Drawing the Line: Absolute v. Contingent Multilingualism	p. 52
Foreign Language Skills and Earnings	p. 55
Language Skills and the Creation of Value	p. 55
Defining Language for Labour Market Analysis	p. 58
The Changing Labour Market Value of Languages Over Time	p. 59
Factoring in Skills Levels	p. 64
The Value of Immigrants' Language Skills	p. 69
Foreign Language Skills, Foreign Language Use, and Production	p. 73
Language Use and the Production Process	p. 75
The Relevance of Language Use	p. 75
The Determinants of Language Use	p. 78
The Production Model Revisited	p. 86
From Theory to Measurement	p. 92
On Modelling, Calibration and Data	p. 92
Data Collection: Dealing with Multi-faceted Labour	p. 95
Data Collection: Grouping Goods	p. 100
Prices at Firm Level	p. 101
Aggregation at Industry Level	p. 102
The Contribution of Multilingualism to Value Creation	p. 105
Value Added and the Production Function	p. 105
The Data	p. 106
Application: Language Skills and Production Functions	p. 110
Extension to Cost and Profit Functions	p. 115
Peeking into the Black Box Again	p. 119
Foreign Language Skills and Hiring Strategies	p. 123
A Neighbouring, Yet Crucial Issue	p. 123
Foreign Language Requirements and Use	p. 124
Modelling Recruitment	p. 128
Towards Linguistic Audits	p. 131
Policy Implications and Future Prospects	p. 135
Policy Implications	p. 137
Bases for Policy Choice	p. 137
Link-up with Language Policy: The Role of the State	p. 140
Language Policy Priorities and Proposals: Contingent Multilingualism	p. 143
Multilingualism at Work: A Prospective Glance	p. 152
Taking Stock	p. 152
The Ideal Data Set	p. 156
New Avenues	p. 159
Language-Augmented Production Model	p. 163
The Core Model	p. 163
Derived Demand for Inputs and Derived Supply for Output	p. 164
Comparative Statics	p. 165
The Variable Profit Function	p. 166
Using the Translog Function	p. 168
Estimation Procedure and Results	p. 171
Databases Used	p. 171
Value Added, Labour Payment, Capital Payment, Capital Stock and Labour Quantity for Years 1995-2006	p. 172
Using the CLES Database: Adjustments and Price Extraction	p. 173
Extending CLES-drawn Prices and Quantities Beyond 1995	p. 175
Extending Prices and Quantities of Goods and Services	p. 175
Estimation of the Production Function	p. 177
Estimation of the Cost Function	p. 181
Estimation of the Profit Function	p. 184
A Simple Recruitment Model	p. 187
The Context	p. 187
Distribution of Speakers	p. 187
Costs	p. 188
The Firm's Programme	p. 190
Analysis of Results	p. 191
Notes	p. 193
Bibliography	p. 207
Author Index	p. 221
Subject Index	p. 225
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