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English as the Lingua Franca and the Economic Value of Other Languages: the Case of the Language of Work of Immigrants and Non-immigrants in the Montreal Labour Market

Author

Listed:
  • Gilles Grenier

    (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON)

  • Serge Nadeau

    (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON)

Abstract

With data from the 2006 Canadian census, we investigate the determinants and the economic values of different languages used at work in the Montreal metropolitan area. The working population is divided into three mother tongues groups: French, English and Others. Three indicators are defined: use of French at work as a second language, and use of an official language at work as opposed to an non-official language. One interesting result is that there is no relationship between schooling and the use of French at work for the English mother tongue group, while schooling is positively related to the use of English at work for the French mothe tongue group and to the use of an offical language at work for the Other mother tongues group. We look at the returns to using a second language at work by means of earnings regressions (with both OLS and IV to account for the endogeneity of the language of work). We find that for the English mother tongue group, using French at work does not pay. In contract, there is a high payoff to using English at work for the French Mother tongue group. For the Other mother tongues group, there is a high payoff to using an official language at work and a modest one to using English instead of French.

Suggested Citation

  • Gilles Grenier & Serge Nadeau, 2011. "English as the Lingua Franca and the Economic Value of Other Languages: the Case of the Language of Work of Immigrants and Non-immigrants in the Montreal Labour Market," Working Papers 1107E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ott:wpaper:1107e
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    File URL: http://sciencessociales.uottawa.ca/economics/sites/socialsciences.uottawa.ca.economics/files/1107E_000.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Austin Nichols, 2009. "Causal inference," DC09 Stata Conference 8, Stata Users Group.
    2. Serge Nadeau, 2010. "Another Look at the Francophone Wage Gap in Canada: Public and Private Sectors, Quebec and Outside Quebec," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 36(2), pages 159-179, June.
    3. Chiswick, Barry R & Miller, Paul W, 1994. "Language Choice among Immigrants in a Multi-lingual Destination," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 119-131.
    4. Morton Stelcner & Daniel M. Shapiro, 1997. "Language and Earnings in Quebec: Trends over Twenty Years, 1970-1990," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 23(2), pages 115-140, June.
    5. Serge Nadeau, 2009. "Another Look at the Francophone Wage Gap in Canada:Public vs Private Sector, Quebec vs Outside Quebec," Working Papers 0912E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Jan Fidrmuc & Jarko Fidrmuc, 2009. "Foreign Languages and Trade," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 09-03, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
    2. Ibrahim Bousmah & Gilles Grenier & David M. Gray, 2021. "Linguistic Distance, Languages of Work and Wages of Immigrants in Montreal," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 1-28, March.
    3. Jan Fidrmuc & Jarko Fidrmuc, 2016. "Foreign languages and trade: evidence from a natural experiment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 31-49, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    language of work; mother tongue; immigrants; Montreal; earnings;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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