Economics of Literary Translation: A Simple Theory and Evidence

21 Pages Posted: 30 May 2008

See all articles by Victor A. Ginsburgh

Victor A. Ginsburgh

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) - Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE); Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES)

Shlomo Weber

Southern Methodist University (SMU) - Department of Economics; New Economic School

Sheila Weyers

Université catholique de Louvain

Date Written: August 2007

Abstract

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, in particular of English, on other languages. All these papers ignore that 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 more and more in English) 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.

Keywords: cultural and linguistic distances, languages, translations

JEL Classification: L82, Z11

Suggested Citation

Ginsburgh, Victor A. and Weber, Shlomo and Weyers, Sheila, Economics of Literary Translation: A Simple Theory and Evidence (August 2007). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP6432, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1138545

Victor A. Ginsburgh (Contact Author)

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) - Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) ( email )

34 Voie du Roman Pays
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348
Belgium
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Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES) ( email )

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Belgium
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Shlomo Weber

Southern Methodist University (SMU) - Department of Economics ( email )

Dallas, TX 75275
United States
214-768-3577 (Phone)
214-768-1821 (Fax)

New Economic School ( email )

Moscow
Russia
+ 7-495-9569508 (Phone)

Sheila Weyers

Université catholique de Louvain ( email )

Place Montesquieu, 3
Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348
Belgium

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