Foreign Languages and Trade

Arbeitspapier

Cultural factors and especially common languages are well-known determinants of trade. By contrast, the knowledge of foreign languages was not explored in the literature so far. We combine traditional gravity models with data on fluency in the main languages used in EU and candidate countries. We show that widespread knowledge of languages is an important determinant for foreign trade, with English playing an especially important role. The robustness of our results is confirmed by a natural experiment of trade between Eastern and Western Europe.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 4670

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models ; Economic Integration ; Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance: General ; Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General
• Thema: gravity model ; foreign trade ; economics of languages ; natural experiment ; median regression ; quantile regression

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Fidrmuc, Jan ; Fidrmuc, Jarko
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (wo): Munich
• (wann): 2014

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/93408
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 20.09.2024, 08:24 MESZ