The Catalan Premium: Language and Employment in Catalonia

Silvio Rendon ()

No 604, Working Papers from Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM

Abstract: In this paper I measure the contribution of knowing Catalan to finding a job in Catalonia. In the early eighties a drastic language policy change (normalització) promoted the learning and use of Catalan in Catalonia and managed to reverse the falling trend of its relative use versus Castilian (Spanish). Using census data for 1991 and 1996, I estimate a significant positive Catalan premium: the probability of being employed increases between 3 and 5 percentage points if individuals know how to read and speak Catalan; it increases between 2 and 6 percentage points for writing Catalan.

Keywords: Language; Immigration; Skill Premium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 J70 J31 I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
Date: 2006-05
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Downloads: (external link)
http://ftp.itam.mx/pub/academico/inves/rendon/06-04.pdf First version, 2006 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: THE CATALAN PREMIUM: LANGUAGE AND EMPLOYMENT IN CATALONIA (2003)
Journal Article: The Catalan premium: language and employment in Catalonia (2007)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cie:wpaper:0604

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