Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/123136 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5491
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Distributions of language rights in multilingual settings are analyzed from a normative viewpoint in this chapter. If the cost structure of providing rights is concave in the number of beneficiaries, then a critical-mass criterion for the determination of an optimal rights structure results. It is further shown that an efficiency analysis based on a ‘naive’ cost-benefit calculation has to be augmented in various ways if rights influence the status of a language, which in turn influences the preferences for language rights. Also the inter-generational transfer of language repertoires to the next generation leads to an endogeneity of preferences. The endogeneity of preferences in turn can make the cost-benefit analysis contradictory. In a welfare-maximizing approach, redistribution goals further modify the analysis.
Subjects: 
efficiency
cost-benefit analysis
economic justice
changeable preferences
language rights
linguistic justice
language policy
JEL: 
D61
D63
H59
K19
Z19
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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