%0 Journal Article
%A Moreno-Ternero, Juan D.
%A Alcalde-Unzu, Jorge
%A Weber, Shlomo
%T The measurement of the value of a language
%D 2022
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10433/14242
%X We address the problem of assessing the value of a language. We consider a stylized model of multi- lingual societies in which we introduce axioms formalizing the principles of impartiality, monotonicity, invariance and consistency. We show that the combination of these axioms characterizes a family of communicative benefit functions which assign a value to each language in the society. The functions within the family involve a two-step procedure. First, they identify the groups of agents that can communicate in each language. Second, each group is assigned an aggregate (size-dependent) value, which is evenly divided among the languages in which the group can communicate. Our novel approach could be useful in a wide range of empirical applications and policy decisions.
%K Value of a language
%K Communicative benefits
%K Measure
%K Axioms
%K Characterization
%~