Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic Exchange

Oliver Falck, Stephan Heblich, Alfred Lameli and Jens Suedekum

No 2961, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We investigate whether time-persistent cultural borders impede economic exchange across regions of the same country. To measure cultural differences we evaluate, for the first time in economics, linguistic micro-data about phonological and grammatical features of German dialects. These data are taken from a unique linguistic survey conducted between 1879 and 1888 in 45,000 schools. Matching this information to 439 current German regions, we construct a dialect similarity matrix. Using a gravity analysis, we show that current cross-regional migration is positively affected by historical dialect similarity. This suggests that cultural identities formed in the past still influence economic exchange today.

Keywords: dialects; language; culture; internal migration; gravity; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 R23 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Dialects, cultural identity, and economic exchange (2012)
Working Paper: Dialects, cultural identity, and economic exchange (2012)
Working Paper: Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic Exchange (2011)
Working Paper: Dialects, cultural identity and economic exchange (2010)
Working Paper: Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic Exchange (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2961

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