Foreign languages and trade: evidence from a natural experiment

被引:46
|
作者
Fidrmuc, Jan [1 ,2 ,3 ]
Fidrmuc, Jarko [2 ,3 ,4 ,5 ,6 ]
机构
[1] Brunel Univ, Dept Econ & Finance, CEDI, London UB8 3PH, England
[2] Charles Univ Prague, Inst Econ Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
[3] CESifo Munich, Munich, Germany
[4] Zeppelin Univ Friedrichshafen, Seemooser Horn 20, D-88045 Friedrichshafen, Germany
[5] Henan Univ, Sch Econ, Kaifeng, Peoples R China
[6] Austrian Inst Econ Res WIFO, Vienna, Austria
关键词
Gravity model; Foreign trade; Economics of languages; Natural experiment; Median regression; Quantile regression; GRAVITY; REGRESSION;
D O I
10.1007/s00181-015-0999-7
中图分类号
F [经济];
学科分类号
02 ;
摘要
Cultural factors and 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 quantile regressions.
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页码:31 / 49
页数:19
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