User:Lucighucig/Economics of language

Origins
The origins of the economics of language can be traced to Jacob Marschak's 1965 publication Economics of language. Here, he discusses the "efficiency of communication."

Language skills as human capital
Possession of language skills is often valued in the labor market, since it allows for greater efficiency in trade and communication.

Gender gap
In their study Gendered language and the educational gender gap, Davis and Reynolds found a connection between the use of gendered languages and the disparity between men and women. They compared languages with one noun class (e.g. English), two noun classes (e.g. Spanish), for masculine and feminine, and three noun classes (e.g. German), for masculine, feminine, and neuter. They concluded that countries that primarily speak languages with two sex-based noun classes are also countries with "lower rates of female participation in labor and credit markets." In addition, such countries often establish political gender quotas.

Gendered languages were also found by Van der Velde, Tyrowicz, and Siwinska in Language and (the estimates of) the gender wage gap to relate to the gender wage gap. They pointed out that the presence of gender neutral environments can lead to at least three consequences: less discrimination by employers against women, less pressure placed upon workers to meet certain gender roles and expectations, and the decreasing wage gap.

Pronouns
Studies have shown that there exists more emphasis on collectivism within societies in which it is not uncommon in the predominant language to drop pronouns. For example, Spanish speakers can say, "Yo estoy cantando," but they are also given the option to say, "Estoy cantando." Other pronoun-drop languages include Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean. On the contrary, speakers of languages that do not typically drop pronouns, such as English, German, and French, tend to express more individualistic views.

Languages with multiple forms of you for the purposes of indicating respect have proven to produce speakers who are more conscious of class differences.