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A Language Theory of Discrimination

A Language Theory of Discrimination Abstract Any advanced industrial society is composed of a number of speech communities with different verbal and nonverbal languages. In particular, in the United States blacks and whites and men and women have sharply differing methods of speaking and listening. This paper develops a model in which people can only work together if they “speak” the same language and in which it is costly to learn a second language. The competitive market will tend to minimize communication through segregation, but if interaction is required, the cost will be borne by the minority. A number of nontrivial predictions are derived from the model. * I am grateful to Kenneth Chomitz, Maxwell Fry, Amihai Glazer, Shulamit Kahn, Lawrence Summers, Finis Welch, members of the UCLA Labor Workshop, and an anonymous referee for comments and criticisms. I owe a special debt to Martha Cox for guiding me through the sociolinguistic literature. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own. This content is only available as a PDF. © 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Quarterly Journal of Economics Oxford University Press

A Language Theory of Discrimination

Lang,, Kevin
The Quarterly Journal of Economics , Volume 101 (2) – May 1, 1986
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References (19)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
ISSN
0033-5533
eISSN
1531-4650
DOI
10.2307/1891120
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract Any advanced industrial society is composed of a number of speech communities with different verbal and nonverbal languages. In particular, in the United States blacks and whites and men and women have sharply differing methods of speaking and listening. This paper develops a model in which people can only work together if they “speak” the same language and in which it is costly to learn a second language. The competitive market will tend to minimize communication through segregation, but if interaction is required, the cost will be borne by the minority. A number of nontrivial predictions are derived from the model. * I am grateful to Kenneth Chomitz, Maxwell Fry, Amihai Glazer, Shulamit Kahn, Lawrence Summers, Finis Welch, members of the UCLA Labor Workshop, and an anonymous referee for comments and criticisms. I owe a special debt to Martha Cox for guiding me through the sociolinguistic literature. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own. This content is only available as a PDF. © 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Journal

The Quarterly Journal of Economics – Oxford University Press

Published: May 1, 1986

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