French

Guillaume Blanc and Masahiro Kubo ()
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Masahiro Kubo: Brown University

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Abstract: This paper studies nation-building in a fragmented society. We document the adoption of a common language and the construction of a national identity in France. Using a natural experiment and drawing on a novel dataset on the languages spoken across municipalities on the eve of the twentieth century, we establish that state intervention in the provision of education brought homogenization. To understand why nation-building was successful, we study heterogeneity and find that elites and the demand for education were instrumental in driving assimilation. Finally, we document further impacts on identity and ideology in the twentieth century.

Keywords: nation-building; language; education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-01-14
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04292485v2
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Related works:
Working Paper: French (2024)
Working Paper: French (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04292485

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