1 option
Book Translations as Idea Flows: The Effects of the Collapse of Communism on the Diffusion of Knowledge / Ran Abramitzky, Isabelle Sin.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Abramitzky, Ran.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w20023.
- NBER working paper series no. w20023
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Other Title:
- Book Translations as Idea Flows
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.
- Summary:
- We use book translations as a new measure of international idea flows and study the effects of Communism's collapse in Eastern Europe on these flows. Using novel data on 800,000 translations and difference-in-differences approaches, we show that while translations between Communist languages decreased by two thirds with the collapse, Western-to-Communist translations increased by a factor of four and quickly converged to Western levels. Convergence was more pronounced in the fields of applied and social sciences, and was more complete in Satellite and Baltic than in Soviet countries. We discuss how these patterns help us understand how repressive institutions and preferences towards Western European ideas shaped the international diffusion of knowledge.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- March 2014.
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.