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| Le Breton, Michel; Makarov, Valery; Savvateev, Alexei; Weber, Shlomo. |
| We consider a model of the “world" with several regions that may create a unified entity or be partitioned into several unions (countries). The regions have distinct preferences over policies chosen in the country to which they belong and equally share the cost of public policies. It is known that stable \political maps" or country partitions, that do not admit a threat of secession by any group of regions, may fail to exist. To rectify this problem, in line with the recent trend for an increased autonomy and various regional arrangements, we consider federal structures, where a region can simultaneously be a part of several unions. We show that, under very general conditions, there always exists a stable federal structure. |
| Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper |
Palavras-chave: Partitions; Federal Structures; Stability; Cooperative Games; C71; D71; H41. |
| Ano: 2008 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37519 |
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| Ginsburgh, Victor; Weber, Shlomo; Weyers, Sheila. |
| 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. |
| Tipo: Conference Paper or Presentation |
Palavras-chave: Languages; Translations; Cultural and Linguistic Distances; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; L82; Z11. |
| Ano: 2008 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/6379 |
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| Gabszewicz, Jean; Ginsburgh, Victor; Weber, Shlomo. |
| 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... |
| Tipo: Conference Paper or Presentation |
Palavras-chave: Communicative Benefits; Linguistic Equilibrium; Learning Costs; Labor and Human Capital; C72; D83; O52; Z13. |
| Ano: 2008 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/6380 |
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