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Language Skills and Earnings: Evidence from Childhood Immigrants

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Author Info
Hoyt Bleakley (University of California at San Diego)
Aimee Chin (University of Houston)

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Abstract

Research on the effect of language skills on earnings is complicated by the endogeneity of language skills. This study exploits the phenomenon that younger children learn languages more easily than older children to construct an instrumental variable for language proficiency. We find a significant positive effect of English proficiency on wages among adults who immigrated to the United States as children. Much of this effect appears to be mediated through education. Differences between non-English-speaking origin countries and English-speaking ones that might make immigrants from the latter a poor control group for nonlanguage age-at-arrival effects do not appear to drive these findings. Copyright (c) 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/003465304323031067
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Publisher Info
Article provided by MIT Press in its journal Review of Economics and Statistics.

Volume (Year): 86 (2004)
Issue (Month): 2 (05)
Pages: 481-496
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Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:86:y:2004:i:2:p:481-496

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  3. Hiroshi Ono & Madeline Zavodny, 2007. "Immigrants, English Ability and the Digital Divide," IZA Discussion Papers 3124, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  4. Libertad González, 2003. "Nonparametric Bounds on The Returns to Language Skills," Economics Working Papers 714, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & Arturo Gonzalez & Todd C. Neumann, 2007. "Estimating the Effects of Length of Exposure to a Training Program: The Case of Job Corps," IZA Discussion Papers 2846, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  9. Ours, Jan C. van & Veenman, Justus, 2005. "Age at immigration and educational attainment of young immigrants," Discussion Paper 11, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  10. Gordon H. Hanson, 2006. "Illegal Migration from Mexico to the United States," NBER Working Papers 12141, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Luis Locay & Tracy Regan & Arthur M. Diamond Jr., 2008. "The Effects of Spanish-Language Background on Completed Schooling and Aptitude Test Scores," Working Papers 0909, University of Miami, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Thomsen, Stephan L. & Gernandt, Johannes & Aldashev, Alisher, 2008. "Language Usage, Participation, Employment and Earnings: Evidence for Foreigners in West Germany with Multiple Sources of Selection," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-090, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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