Foreign Language Learning: An Econometric Analysis

Victor Ginsburgh, Jacques Melitz and Farid Toubal

No 1501, Heriot-Watt University Economics Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, School of Management and Languages, Heriot Watt University

Abstract: The paper is devoted to an econometric analysis of learning foreign languages in all parts of the world. Our sample covers 193 countries and 13 important languages. Four factors significantly explain learning: the world population of native speakers of the home language, literacy, trade with foreign speakers of the target language, and the linguistic distance between the home language and this foreign language. All four factors affect the broad decision to learn but the last two also point to the choice of the particular language to learn. The world population of speakers of the native language discourages learning in general while literacy promotes it in general. Trade with speakers of a specific target language prompts learning of that specific language while the linguistic distance between the home and the foreign language discourages learning of the language. Trade may well deserve more emphasis than the other three factors, not only for its high significance, but also because its direction can change faster and by a larger order of magnitude. Controlling for individual acquired languages, including English, is of no particular importance.

JEL-codes: F10 F20 J00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ger
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Foreign Language Learning: An Econometric Analysis (2015)
Working Paper: Foreign Language Learning: An Econometric Analysis (2014)
Working Paper: Foreign language learnings: An econometric analysis (2014)
Working Paper: Foreign Language Learning: An Econometric Analysis (2014)
Working Paper: Foreign Language Learning: An Econometric Analysis (2014)
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