Bilingualism and communicative benefits

Arbeitspapier

We examine patterns of acquiring non-native languages in a model with two languages and two populations with heterogeneous learning skills, where every individual faces a binary choice of learning the foreign language or refraining from doing so. We show that both interior and corner linguistic equilibria can emerge in our framework, and that the fraction of learners of the foreign language is higher in the country with a higher gross cost adjusted communicative benefit. It turns out that this observation is consistent with the data on language proficiency in bilingual countries such as Belgium and Canada. We also point out that linguistic equilibria can exhibit insufficient learning which opens the door for government policies that are beneficial for both populations.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Nota di Lavoro ; No. 2008,17

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Noncooperative Games ; Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness ; Economywide Country Studies: Europe ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Thema: Communicative Benefits ; Linguistic Equilibrium ; Learning Costs ; Mehrsprachigkeit ; Bildungsinvestition ; Bildungsertrag ; Nichtkooperatives Spiel

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Gabszewicz, Jean ; Ginsburgh, Victor ; Weber, Shlomo
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)
• (wo): Milano
• (wann): 2008

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/40671
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ