Dialects, cultural Identity, and economic exchange

Arbeitspapier

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.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 2961

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics ; Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
• Thema: dialects ; language ; culture ; internal migration ; gravity ; Germany ; Interregionaler Handel ; Binnenwanderung ; Kulturpsychologie ; Sprache ; Gravitationsmodell ; Schätzung ; Deutschland

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Falck, Oliver ; Heblich, Stephan ; Lameli, Alfred ; Suedekum, Jens
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (wo): Munich
• (wann): 2010

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/30719
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 01.05.0005, 11:44 MEZ