Language-in-education, language skills and the intergenerational transmission of language in a bilingual society

Ramon Caminal, Lorenzo Cappellari and Antonio Di Paolo

Labour Economics, 2021, vol. 70, issue C

Abstract: We investigate the causal effect of parents’ linguistic skills on the intergenerational language transmission in a bilingual society. We consider the case of Catalonia, where the two main speech communities, Spanish and Catalan, are of similar sizes, and both languages are official, and exploit the natural experiment generated by a language-in-education reform. We discuss theoretically the main alternative channels through which such policies may affect the language parents speak to their children. Empirically, we find that the reform improved oral skills in Catalan among native Spanish speakers. These greater skills increased the propensity to speak Catalan with the offspring, which highlights the intergenerational spillovers overs of the reform. We also show that the effect is not confounded by spurious trends, potential changes in language identity, and linguistically mixed partnership formation.

Keywords: Language; Intergenerational transmission; Language proficiency; Language-in-education reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I28 J13 J24 J62 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:70:y:2021:i:c:s0927537121000105

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.101975

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