Economics of Literary Translation. A Simple Theory and Evidence

Shlomo Weber, Victor Ginsburgh and Sheila Weyers
Additional contact information
Shlomo Weber: University Dallas
Sheila Weyers: Université catholique de Louvain

No 2008.12, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: Books are an important factor of cultural transmission, but need, in most cases, to be translated. According to some authors, this may lead to a form of cultural domination of English. The population speaking English as a first language is, with the exception of Mandarin, the largest in the world. It is therefore not surprising that English produces more fiction (and much more scientific literature, as scientists from all countries write in English with increasing frequency) than any other language. We develop a theoretical model of translation, which is estimated on the basis of UNESCO translation data. We show that translations from English are dominated by translations from other languages, including Scandinavian ones and French.

Keywords: Languages; Translations; Cultural and Linguistic Distances (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L82 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Economics of Literary Translation. A Simple Theory and Evidence (2008)
Working Paper: Economics of literary translation: A simple theory and evidence (2007)
Working Paper: Economics of Literary Translation: A Simple Theory and Evidence (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fem:femwpa:2008.12

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