Book Translations as Idea Flows: The Effects of the Collapse of Communism on the Diffusion of Knowledge

Ran Abramitzky () and Isabelle Sin
Additional contact information
Ran Abramitzky: Stanford University and NBER

No 12-05, Working Papers from Motu Economic and Public Policy Research

Abstract: We use book translations as a new measure of international idea flows and study the effects of Communism’s collapse in Eastern Europe on these flows. Using novel data on 800,000 translations and difference-in-differences approaches, we show that while translations between Communist languages decreased by two thirds with the collapse, Western-to-Communist translations increased by a factor of five and quickly converged to Western levels. Convergence was more complete in more economically-useful fields such as the sciences, and was more complete in Satellite than in Soviet countries. These findings help us understand how institutions shape the international diffusion of knowledge.

Keywords: idea flows; book translations; institutions; institutional change; Communism's collapse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F02 F15 N0 N70 N74 P20 P30 P51 P52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2012-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://motu-www.motu.org.nz/wpapers/12_05.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: BOOK TRANSLATIONS AS IDEA FLOWS: THE EFFECTS OF THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM ON THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE (2014)
Working Paper: Book Translations as Idea Flows: The Effects of the Collapse of Communism on the Diffusion of Knowledge (2014)
Working Paper: Book Translations As Idea Flows: The Effects of the Collapse of Communism on the Diffusion of Knowledge (2010)
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