Costing Babel: The contribution of language skills to exporting and productivity

he tower of Babel story illustrates the contribution a common language makes to trade. Also the drama shows that different languages are barriers reducing productivity — unless language skills are widespread. Yet as early as the 1890s, a keen observer bemoaned the unwillingness of British businessmen to make any linguistic concessions in overseas markets, thereby losing customers to the more accommodating foreign competitors (Gaskell 1897).

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