Tables and Figures ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 (8) PART I The Economic Perspective on Multilingualism 9 (64) 1 Language at Work: Identifying the Issue 11 (17) 1.1 Enduring Concerns, Little-Known Processes 11 (6) 1.2 The Economic Analysis of the Firm: A First Approach to the Inclusion of Linguistic Diversity 17 (11) 2 On the Linguistics of the Economy v. the Economics of Language 28 (11) 2.1 A Tentative Mapping 28 (2) 2.2 Bourdieu and His Heirs: A Glimpse at Some Sociolinguistic Perspectives 30 (4) 2.3 Pragmatics-oriented Perspectives 34 (1) 2.4 Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis 35 (2) 2.5 Additional Perspectives on Language in the Economy 37 (2) 3 A Gallery of Empirical Findings 39 (16) 3.1 Descriptive Results 39 (6) 3.2 Edging Closer to Economic Effects 45 (3) 3.3 Different Paths to Estimation 48 (4) 3.4 Drawing the Line: Absolute v. Contingent Multilingualism 52 (3) 4 Foreign Language Skills and Earnings 55 (18) 4.1 Language Skills and the Creation of Value 55 (3) 4.2 Defining Language for Labour Market Analysis 58 (1) 4.3 The Changing Labour Market Value of Languages Over Time 59 (5) 4.4 Factoring in Skills Levels 64 (5) 4.5 The Value of Immigrants' Language Skills 69 (4) PART II Foreign Language Skills, Foreign Language Use, and Production 73 (62) 5 Language Use and the Production Process 75 (17) 5.1 The Relevance of Language Use 75 (3) 5.2 The Determinants of Language Use 78 (8) 5.3 The Production Model Revisited 86 (6) 6 From Theory to Measurement 92 (13) 6.1 On Modelling, Calibration and Data 92 (3) 6.2 Data Collection: Dealing with Multi-faceted Labour 95 (5) 6.3 Data Collection: Grouping Goods 100 (1) 6.4 Prices at Firm Level 101 (1) 6.5 Aggregation at Industry Level 102 (3) 7 The Contribution of Multilingualism to Value Creation 105 (18) 7.1 Value Added and the Production Function 105 (1) 7.2 The Data 106 (4) 7.3 Application: Language Skills and Production Functions 110 (5) 7.4 Extension to Cost and Profit Functions 115 (4) 7.5 Peeking into the Black Box Again 119 (4) 8 Foreign Language Skills and Hiring Strategies 123 (12) 8.1 A Neighbouring, Yet Crucial Issue 123 (1) 8.2 Foreign Language Requirements and Use 124 (4) 8.3 Modelling Recruitment 128 (3) 8.4 Towards Linguistic Audits 131 (4) PART III Policy Implications and Future Prospects 135 (28) 9 Policy Implications 137 (15) 9.1 Bases for Policy Choice 137 (3) 9.2 Link-up with Language Policy: The Role of the State 140 (3) 9.3 Language Policy Priorities and Proposals: Contingent Multilingualism 143 (9) 10 Multilingualism at Work: A Prospective Glance 152 (11) 10.1 Taking Stock 152 (4) 10.2 The Ideal Data Set 156 (3) 10.3 New Avenues 159 (4) Appendix I: Language-Augmented Production Model 163 (8) 1 The Core Model 163 (1) 2 Derived Demand for Inputs and Derived Supply for Output 164 (1) 3 Comparative Statics 165 (1) 4 The Variable Profit Function 166 (2) 5 Using the Translog Function 168 (3) Appendix II: Estimation Procedure and Results 171 (16) 1 Databases Used 171 (1) 2 Value Added, Labour Payment, Capital Payment, Capital Stock and Labour Quantity for Years 1995-2006 172 (1) 3 Using the CLES Database: Adjustments and Price Extraction 173 (2) 4 Extending CLES-drawn Prices and Quantities Beyond 1995 175 (1) 5 Extracting Prices and Quantities of Goods and Services 175 (2) 6 Estimation of the Production Function 177 (4) 7 Estimation of the Cost Function 181 (3) 8 Estimation of the Profit Function 184 (3) Appendix III: A Simple Recruitment Model 187 (6) 1 The Context 187 (1) 2 Distribution of Speakers 187 (1) 3 Costs 188 (2) 4 The Firm's Programme 190 (1) 5 Analysis of Results 191 (2) Notes 193 (14) Bibliography 207 (14) Author Index 221 (4) Subject Index 225