Dialects, cultural identity and economic exchange

Oliver Falck, Stephan Heblich, Alfred Lameli () and Jens Südekum ()
Additional contact information
Alfred Lameli: Research Centre Deutscher Sprachatlas
Jens Südekum: University of Duisburg-Essen
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Jens Suedekum

No 2010/26, Working Papers from Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB)

Abstract: It has long been argued that economic phenomena are affected by culture. However, the causal effect of cultural ties on economic exchange is difficult to identify, chiefly because cultural ties are endogenous to the current level of economic exchange, and because it is hard to separate culture from other influences. In this paper, we address these issues by using a novel measure for cultural identity—historical dialect differences across regions of the same country. We evaluate linguistic micro-data from a unique language survey conducted between 1879 and 1888 in about 45,000 German schools. The recorded geography of dialects comprehensively reflects local cultural differences that have been evolving for centuries and provides an ideal opportunity to isolate cultural costs from other barriers to economic exchange. In a gravity analysis, we then show that cross-regional migration flows in the period 2000–2006 are positively affected by historical dialect similarity, a finding that indicates highly time-persistent cultural borders that impede economic exchange even at a fine geographical scale.

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)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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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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