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Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic ExchangeOliver FalckCESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research) - Department Human Capital and Innovation Stephan HeblichUniversity of Stirling - Department of Economics Alfred LameliUniversity of Marburg Jens SuedekumUniversity of Duisburg-Essen; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) February 2010 CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2961 Abstract: We investigate whether time-persistent cultural borders impede economic exchange across regions of the same country. To measure cultural differences we evaluate, for the first time in economics, linguistic micro-data about phonological and grammatical features of German dialects. These data are taken from a unique linguistic survey conducted between 1879 and 1888 in 45,000 schools. Matching this information to 439 current German regions, we construct a dialect similarity matrix. Using a gravity analysis, we show that current cross-regional migration is positively affected by historical dialect similarity. This suggests that cultural identities formed in the past still influence economic exchange today.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 48 Keywords: dialects, language, culture, internal migration, gravity, Germany JEL Classification: R23, Z10, J61 working papers seriesDate posted: March 18, 2010Suggested CitationContact Information
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