La Economía de la lengua: una visión de conjunto

These pages aim to give a global vision of the current situation of the so called “Economics of language” literature. They start over with a description of main characteristics and a first definition of what it is correctly understood as “Economics of language”. Later on, we thoroughly analyse some of the key research lines through with the economic analysis has shown interest for languages, for its double nature as both public and private good, for its intangible condition, and above all for the consideration of “network externalities” related to its use, reaching thus, several economic approaches and some aspects of the interrelation between languages and Economics, which deserve here a special attention. Finally, and before a conclusion, we point out how the progress of this literature is yet limited in Spain, despite the high value given to the Spanish as international language.