Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/167615
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 104
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Maastricht
Abstract: 
We examine the heterogeneous impacts of foreign language use at work on earnings of both native-born workers and foreign-born workers, using a longitudinal survey, viz. the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) running from 1994 to 2001. Our findings are the following. First, for native-born workers with a tertiary diploma, using a foreign language at work is found to have an unambiguously positive impact on their earnings (2% on average). Second, for foreign-born workers, returns to foreign language use at work is highly complementary to education. Foreign language users below the upper secondary educational level earn significantly less (¡8%) than those who use the local language at work. Third, with regard to language types, a linguistically distant foreign language gives native-born workers the highest wage premium, while the use of EU official languages pays off the most for foreign-born workers. Fourth, our results do not show evidence that the lack of local language knowledge of low-educated migrants causes these results, as immigrants for whom themother tongue is similar to the local language show a similar pattern.
Subjects: 
foreign language at work
earnings
native-born
foreign-born
JEL: 
J24
J31
J61
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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