Activity: Talks or Presentations › Other Invited Talks or Presentations
Description
This presentation looks at two possible problems in Hong Kong's translation market, asymmetric information and signal jamming, through the interviews of ten employers and translation service buyers from a number of settings.
As is commonly believed, it is usually difficult for employers and service buyers to distinguish the quality of translators before any professional relationships have been established, and signals such as certification and educational diplomas are sometimes used to reduce the information asymmetry. However, translator training programs tend to over supply the market and no certification program enjoys a high level of universal recognition. This resulting situation, in which potential employers are uncertain about which signal to trust, is known as a signal jam.
