Barcelona GSE Working Paper Series Working Paper nº 713The economic value of reciprocal bilingualism

Some bilingual societies exhibit a distribution of language skills that cannot be explained by economic theories that portray languages as pure communication devices. Such distribution of skills are typically the result of public policies that promote bilingualism among members of both speech communities (reciprocal bilingualism). In this paper I argue that these policies are likely to increase social welfare by diminishing economic and social segmentation between the two communities. However, these gains tend to be unequally distributed over the two communities. As a result, in a large range of circumstances these policies might not draw su ¢ cient support. The model is built upon the communicative value of languages, but also emphasizes the role of linguistic preferences in the behavior of bilingual individuals.

The design and efficiency of loyalty rewards

The goal of this paper is to reexamine the optimal design and efficiency of loyalty rewards in markets for final consumption goods. While the literature has emphasized the role of loyalty rewards as endogenous switching costs (which distort the efficient allocation of consumers), in this paper I analyze the ability of alternative designs to foster consumer participation and increase total surplus. First, the efficiency of loyalty rewards depend on their specific design. A commitment to the price of repeat purchases can involve substantial efficiency gains by reducing price-cost margins. However, discount policies imply higher future regular prices and are likely to reduce total surplus. Second, firms may prefer to set up inefficient rewards (discounts), especially in those circumstances where a commitment to the price of repeat purchases triggers Coasian dynamics.Loyalty rewards, Coasian dynamics, Price commitment, Coupons

Markets and linguistic diversity

The choice of language is a crucial decision for firms competing in cultural goods and media markets with a bilingual or multilingual consumer base. To the extent that multilingual consumers have preferences over the intrinsic characteristics (content) as well as over the language of the product, we can examine the efficiency of market outcomes regarding linguistic diversity. In this paper, I extend the spokes model and introduce language as an additional dimension of product differentiation. I show that: (i) if firms supply their product in a single language (the adoption model) then the degree of linguistic diversity is inefficiently low, and (ii) if some firms supply more than one linguistic version (the translation model) then in principle the market outcome may exhibit insufficient or excessive linguistic diversity. However, excessive diversity is associated to markets where the fraction of products in the minority language is disproportionately high with respect to the relative size of the linguistic minority.Product variety, language, translation

Simultaneous Nash Bargaining with Consistent Beliefs

We propose and analyze a new solution concept, the R solution, for three-person, transferable utility, cooperative games. In the spirit of the Nash Bargaining Solution, our concept is founded on the predicted outcomes of simultaneous, two-party negotiations that would be the alternative to the grand coalition. These possibly probabilistic predictions are based on consistent beliefs. We analyze the properties of the R solution and compare it with the Shapley value and other concepts. The R solution exists and is unique. It belongs to the bargaining set and to the core whenever the latter is not empty. In fact, when the grand coalition can simply execute one of the three possible bilateral trades, the R solution is the most egalitarian selection of the bargaining set. Finally, we discuss how the R solution changes important conclusions of several well known Industrial Organization models.cooperative games, bargaining, endogenous fall-back options, consistent beliefs, R solution.

La coordinació de polítiques macroeconòmiques

La teoria dels jocs ens diu que no hi ha receptes universals per coordinar les diverses polítiques econòmique

Markets and linguistic diversity

The choice of language is a crucial decision for firms competing in cultural goods and media markets with a bilingual or multilingual consumer base. Insofar as multilingual consumers have preferences regarding the intrinsic characteristics (content) as well as the language of the product, we can examine the efficiency of market outcomes in terms of linguistic diversity. In this paper, I extend the spokes model and introduce language as an additional dimension of product differentiation. I show that: (i) if firms supply their product in a single language (the adoption model), then the degree of linguistic diversity is inefficiently low and (ii) if some firms supply more than one linguistic version (the translation model), then in principle the market outcome may exhibit insufficient or excessive linguistic diversity. However, excessive diversity is associated with markets where the share of products in the minority language is disproportionately high with respect to the relative size of the linguistic minority.The choice of language is a crucial decision for firms competing in cultural goods and media markets with a bilingual or multilingual consumer base. Insofar as multilingual consumers have preferences regarding the intrinsic characteristics (content) as well as the language of the product, we can examine the efficiency of market outcomes in terms of linguistic diversity. In this paper, I extend the spokes model and introduce language as an additional dimension of product differentiation. I show that: (i) if firms supply their product in a single language (the adoption model), then the degree of linguistic diversity is inefficiently low and (ii) if some firms supply more than one linguistic version (the translation model), then in principle the market outcome may exhibit insufficient or excessive linguistic diversity. However, excessive diversity is associated with markets where the share of products in the minority language is disproportionately high with respect to the relative size of the linguistic minority

Llengua catalana, mitjans i mercat

Obra col·lectiva biennal, creada per l'Institut de la Comunicació de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (InCom-UAB), l'any 2000. La sisena edició, corresponent al bienni 2009-2010, va comptar amb el suport de la Generalitat de Catalunya, el patrocini de Gas Natural Fenosa; la col·laboració científica del Baròmetre de la Comunicació i la Cultura (Fundacc); la subscripció institucional de la Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA); i la col·laboració acadèmica de l'Observatori de Polítiques de Comunicació (OPC InCom-UAB); el Departament d'Estudis de Comunicació de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), l'Observatori de la Comunicació Local (OCL InCom-UAB)/URV/Diputació de Barcelona; i el Portal de la Comunicació (InCom-UAB).En el marc del Grup Internacional d'Estudis sobre Comunicació i Cultura (InCom-UAB), reconegut com a Grup Consolidat de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya per al període 2010-2013 (Referència de concessió 2009 SGR 00615).En aquest capítol l'autor estudia des del punt de vista econòmic la presència de la llengua catalana als mitjans de comunicació i a d'altres béns culturals, i considera la seva viabilitat, posant en relació el mercat i les polítiques públiques en matèria de comunicació i cultura. Es qüestiona si els mercats responen de manera eficient a les demandes lingüístiques de la població o si, pel contrari, podem identificar motius específics per a un funcionament defectuós del mercat en la dimensió lingüística. Es conclou que les forces del mercat tendeixen a discriminar en contra de les llengües minoritàries i que, per tant, són necessàries polítiques d'intervenció pública per tal de millorar-ne l'eficiència econòmica

Your Language or Mine? The Non-Communicative Benefits of Language Skills

Do languages matter beyond their communicative benefits? We explore the potential role of preferences over the language of use, theoretically and empirically. We focus on Catalonia, a bilingual society where everyone is fully proficient in Spanish, to isolate linguistic preferences from communicative benefits. Moreover, we exploit the language-in-education reform of 1983 to identify the causal effects of language skills. Results indicate that the policy change has improved the Catalan proficiency of native Spanish speakers, which in turn increased their propensity to find Catalan-speaking partners. Hence, the acquisition of apparently redundant language skills has reduced endogamy

Linguistic skills and the intergenerational transmission of language [WP]

We investigate the pattern of intergenerational transmission of language in a bilingual society. We consider the case of Catalonia, where the two main speech communities, Spanish and Catalan, are of similar sizes, both languages are official, and each one enjoys the protection of a different layer of government. However, whereas all native Catalan speakers are bilingual, only a fraction of native Spanish speakers are fully proficient in Catalan. In this environment, transmission decisions are far from trivial. We provide a simple theory showing that changing the costs of acquiring a second language affects language skills as well as the language parents speak to their children. Empirically, we exploit the natural experiment generated by a language-in-education reform that introduced Catalan–Spanish bilingualism at school to estimate the causal effects of language skills on intergenerational transmission. Results show that the increased proficiency in Catalan among native Spanish speakers induced by the reform augmented their propensity to speak Catalan to their offspring. The causal effect of the policyinduced increase in language proficiency on language transmission is not confounded by spurious trends, potential changes in language identity, and linguistically mixed partnership formation

SLAM-based 3D outdoor reconstructions from lidar data

The use of depth (RGBD) cameras to reconstruct large outdoor environments is not feasible due to lighting conditions and low depth range. LIDAR sensors can be used instead. Most state of the art SLAM methods are devoted to indoor environments and depth (RGBD) cameras. We have adapted two SLAM systems to work with LIDAR data. We have compared the systems for LIDAR and RGBD data by performing quantitative evaluations. Results show that the best method for LIDAR data is RTAB-Map with a clear difference. Additionally, RTAB-Map has been used to create 3D reconstructions with and without photometry from a visible color camera. This proves the potential of LIDAR sensors for the reconstruction of outdoor environments for immersion or audiovisual production applicationsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft