Estimating literary translators’ earnings penalty
A cultural economics approach to translator studies
Seeking to fill the gap in economics-related research in the subfield of translator studies, this article aims to identify
the best approach to estimate the earnings penalty and forgone income of Iranian professional literary translators. The data were collected
through interviews with 118 Iranian professional literary translators. A multiple regression analysis done to estimate the translators’
annual income equation shows that male Tehran-based literary translators who have no other jobs and spent less time on higher education earn
more than their colleagues who are female, do not live in Tehran, have other jobs, and spent more time on higher education. However, the
multiple regression analysis for estimating the average forgone income equation of the interviewees indicates that the more experience and
the fewer award jury/editorial board memberships female non-Tehran-based literary translators have, the more they suffer from earnings
penalties. Building on these findings, the article highlights the implications of cultural economics research for translator studies.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Earnings penalty
- 3.Research methodology
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Procedure
- 3.3Analyses
- 4.Results and discussion
- 4.1Description of the sample
- 4.2Estimating forgone income and earnings penalty: Three approaches
- 4.3Estimating forgone income equations: Variables influencing forgone income and earnings penalty
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
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References