The measurement of the value of a language

Jorge Alcalde-Unzu, Juan Moreno-Ternero and Shlomo Weber

Journal of Economic Theory, 2022, vol. 203, issue C

Abstract: We address the problem of assessing the value of a language. We consider a stylized model of multilingual societies in which we introduce axioms formalizing the principles of impartiality, monotonicity, invariance and consistency. We show that the combination of these axioms characterizes a family of communicative benefit functions which assign a value to each language in the society. The functions within the family involve a two-step procedure. First, they identify the groups of agents that can communicate in each language. Second, each group is assigned an aggregate (size-dependent) value, which is evenly divided among the languages in which the group can communicate. Our novel approach could be useful in a wide range of empirical applications and policy decisions.

Keywords: Value of a language; Communicative benefits; Measure; Axioms; Characterization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 D62 D63 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The measurement of the value of a language (2022)
Working Paper: The measurement of the value of a language (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:203:y:2022:i:c:s0022053122000588

DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2022.105468

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