DOCUMENT RESUME ED 429 438 FL 025 708 AUTHOR Breton, Albert, Ed. TITLE Economic Approaches to Language and Bilingualism. New Canadian Perspectives. INSTITUTION Canadian Heritage, Ottawa (Ontario). ISBN ISBN-0-662-26885-7 ISSN ISSN-1203-8903 PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 261p. AVAILABLE FROM Official Languages Support Programs, Department of Canadian Heritage, 15 Eddy, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A-0M5 (Cat. no. CH3-2-7/1998E); Tel: 819-994-2224; Web site: http://www.pch.gc.ca/offlangoff/perspectives/index.htm (free). PUB TYPE Books (010) Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Bilingual Education; *Bilingualism; *Economic Factors; Economics; Foreign Countries; Global Approach; Human Capital; International Trade; *Labor Economics; Language Minorities; *Language Role; *Languages; *Official Languages; Regional Characteristics; Second Language Instruction IDENTIFIERS Acadians; *Canada; New Brunswick ABSTRACT Six essays on the links between official languages and the economy in Canada include: "An Economic Analysis of Language" (Albert Breton); "The Economics of Language in a Virtually Integrated Global Economy" (Richard G. Harris); "Speak and Ye Shall Receive: Language Knowledgeas Human Capital" (Krishna Pendakur, Ravi Pendakur); "Bilingualism and Earnings: A Study Based on 1971, 1981, and 1991 Census Data" (Louis N. Christofides, Robert Swidinsky); "Bilingualism in Employee Recruitment and the Role of Symbolic Analysts in Leading Export-Oriented Firms" (Harold Chorney); and "The Contributions of a Minority to its Region: The Case of the Acadians in New Brunswick's South East" (Maurice Beaudin).(MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** oo en -cr o. A 110 A ISIS MIK MINIM AAs IA 1- . 011111111110110---r- .21111111111110-- eaba4410ft.. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 1 u S DEPARTMENT mi i'lAenfe__,_- Office of Educational OF EDUCATION Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES .c3 his document has been reproducedas INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) eceived from theperson or organization originating it 'll 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality 4NS4,0, .\ ° Points of view or opinions statedin this document do notnecessarily represent official OERI positionor policy '''k4 Pr 11 4fl4 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Canadian Patrimoine 11+1 Heritage Canadien NEW CANADIAN PERSPECTIVES Economic Approaches to Language and to Bilingualism Edited by Albert Breton Department of Economics University of Toronto OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ii8, Canada" The opinions expressed in this publicationare those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect federalgovernment policy or opinion. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data (Canada) Economic Approaches to Language and Bilingualism (New Canadian Perspectives, ISSN 1203-8903) Text in English and in French (two volumes). Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-662-26885-7 Cat. No. CH3-2-7/1998E 1. Language policy Economic aspects Canada. 2. Bilingualism Economic aspects Canada Congresses. I. Canada. Canadian Heritage. II. Series. P119.32C3 1998 306.44971 C98-980242-6. © Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 1998 Economic Approaches TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Albert Breton 1. An Economic Analysis of Language 1 Albert Breton 2. The Economics of Language ina Virtually Integrated Global Economy 35 Richard G. Harris 3.Speak and Ye Shall Receive: Language Knowledge as Human Capital 89 Krishna Pendakur and Ravi Pendakur 4. Bilingualism and Earnings: A Study Based on1971, 1981and1991Census Data 121 Louis N. Christofides and Robert Swidinsky 5. Bilingualism in Employee Recruitment and the Role of Symbolic Analysts in Leading Export-Oriented Firms 185 Harold Chorney 6. The Contribution ofa Minority to its Region: The Case of the Acadians in New Brunswick's SouthEast 223 Maurice Beaudin Language and Bilingualism INTRODUCTION In May 1995, the Department of Canadian Heritage inviteda group of people from academia, business, and other backgroundsto informally discuss the different relationships that could be presumedto exist between Canada's official languages and theeconomy. The meeting, which took place in Ottawa and for which all participants had prepared a short paper,was a success. It did make clear, however, that to better understand the links between official languages and the economy, something more was needed. The Department decided that a modest research program would be a useful first step. A departmental committee'was created to define guidelines and to attract researchers that would accept to undertake the work. Iwas invited to join the committee andto act as coordinator of the research program. The papers included in this volume are the first fruits of that program. What we may call the economic approachto language is not, as yet, constituted of many well-defined propositions. Scholars and others who choose to reflecton language problems by making use of concepts and methods borrowed from economics have no more than a few papers, their imagination, and their sense of reality to guide them. There are, to besure, some basic arguments that appear to have gained acceptance and that provide guidanceto new research, but there are remarkably few of these. Discussing with economists who possibly could have been interested in participating in theDepartment of Canadian Heritage's researchprogram, I was more than once surprised to discover that these colleagues, all of whom knew about 1. The departmental committee is made-up of: Albert Breton, Pierre Gaudet, Ned Ellis, Ghislain Savoie, Michael O'Keefe, Pau le Doucet. 6 Economic Approaches Introduction the application of economicsto issues that have not been traditionally considered to fall in the domain of economics,did not know about the work on the economics of language that hadbeen done over the last 30 years or so. If an economics of health, of family,or of culture exist, there is stillno field of language economics. One has to expect thatover the next 10 years or possibly even longer, work on languages and their relationshipto economies will continue to lack unity. That may not be a serious problem ifa core of basic propositions come to be acceptedas useful and productive. A synthesis is always appreciated especially if itpermits a simplification of concepts anda demonstration that propositions which had appeared to be at variance with each otherare indeed complementary But the very purpose of researchthepurpose of that activity whose object is an expansion of knowledgeisto undermine the last best synthesis. Let me illustrate. There is evidence, but ofa still very impressionistic sort, that languages havean influence on the pattern of tourism. If the benefits of tourism exceed itscosts, a corroboration of the current impressionistic evidence would leadus to reconsider our ideas on the social,as distinguished from the private, yield on investments in languages and in bilingualism. That would forceus to re-think not only the theory of investment in languagesas human capital, but also to reappraise public policies regardingthe teaching and learning of languages. Although the matter is discussed inmy own contribution to the present volume, I want to emphasize that the application of economic concepts and economic methodology to the analysis of language has many potential advantages. More than the other social sciences, economics possesses rules and criteria whichat times may seem pedantic and superfluous, but whichserve as guides to insure completenessto insure, for example, that the assumptionswhich underlie hypothesesare spelled out and analysed. That being said, it should also be clear that inmany areas, of which language is certainly one, there are problems and issues which economics cannot illuminate. All the papers contained in this volume examinesome aspect of the relationship of languages to theeconomy My chapter extends the work I did with Peter Mieszkowski in the 1970's, work that treatedthe Language and Bilingualism Introduction learning of languages asan accumulation of human capital governed by the net yieldon that asset. Richard Harris from Simon Fraser University examines in some detail the impact ofrecent innovations in information and communication technologieson language use. This theoretical analysis greatly extendsour understanding of the relationship of language to theeconomy Two systematic and up-to- date econometric studiesone by Krishna Pendakur ofSimon Fraser University and Ravi Pendakur of the Department of Canadian Heritage and a secondone by Louis Christofides and Robert Swidinski of the University of Guelphoffermeasures of the yield to languages in Canada indifferent contexts and for different populations. The volume also containstwo empirical, though not econometric, studies of the value of languages intwo specific contexts. One by Harold Chorney of Concordia University examines howknowledge of languages can bea source of employment; and a second by Maurice Beaudin of the Université de Monctonsuggests that knowledge of language can be asource of economic growth. Though they are less rigorous than the econometric studies, thesetwo pieces of research help us further appreciate how knowledge of languagesaffects economies. The topics addressed in these six chaptersare