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Language Barriers

Author

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  • Oliver Board
  • Andreas Blume

Abstract

Private information about language competence drives a wedge between the indicative meanings of messages, the sets of states indicated by those messages, and their imperative meanings, the actions induced by those messages. When sender and receiver have common interests, optimal use of an imperfectly shared language subverts both the indicative and imperative meanings of utterances: Messages convey both directly payoff relevant information and instrumental information about the sender’s language competence. Furthermore the actions induced by messages depend on the receiver’s uncertain ability to decode them. With conflict of interest, an imperfectly shared language can substitute for mediated communication.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Board & Andreas Blume, 2009. "Language Barriers," Working Paper 390, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Mar 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:pit:wpaper:390
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    File URL: http://www.pitt.edu/~ojboard/papers/lb.pdf
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