Economics of Translation: Estimating the Earnings Function of Iranian Literary Translators

Literary translators seem to share a lot with artists, especially in their labor markets, however, cultural economists studying artistic labor markets have rarely, if at all, included translators in their studies, probably because cultural economics, unlike translation studies, originated and flourished in countries whose languages belonged to the center of the global system of translations, where the ratio of translations to book publications is strikingly low. Drawing on the artistic labor market research by cultural economists and the few socioeconomic studies conducted by translation studies scholars, this paper aims at finding the features that best explain the literary translation income. Preliminary analysis of the data collected in interviews with 118 Iranian literary translators showed remarkable similarities with artists regarding their labor markets: low income, multiple job holdings, and the weak role of formal education, among others. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that the only variable – among experience, education, job distance, hours worked, awards, and membership of award jury and editorial board – with a direct positive effect was the number of awards received by the translator. However, the variables of higher education and monthly hours worked had direct negative effect, with female translator and those not living in the capital Tehran earning less than their counterparts.