Language knowledge and earnings in Catalonia

Antonio Di Paolo and Josep Raymond ()

No XREAP2010-07, Working Papers from Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP)

Abstract: This paper investigates the economic value of Catalan knowledge for national and foreign first- and second-generation immigrants in Catalonia. Specifically, drawing on data from the “Survey on Living Conditions and Habits of the Catalan Population (2006)”, we want to quantify the expected earnings differential between individuals who are proficient in Catalan and those who are not, taking into account the potential endogeneity between knowledge of Catalan and earnings. The results indicate the existence of a positive return to knowledge of Catalan, with a 7.5% increase in earnings estimated by OLS; however, when we account for the presence of endogeneity, monthly earnings are around 18% higher for individuals who are able to speak and write Catalan. However, we also find that language and education are complementary inputs for generating earnings in Catalonia, given that knowledge of Catalan increases monthly earnings only for more educated individuals.

Keywords: Language; Earnings; Immigrants; Endogeneity; Complementarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 J24 J61 J79 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2010-07, Revised 2010-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

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http://www.xreap.cat/RePEc/xrp/pdf/XREAP2010-7.pdf First version, 2010 (application/pdf)
http://www.xreap.cat/RePEc/xrp/pdf/XREAP2010-7.pdf Revised version, 2010 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Language knowledge and earnings in Catalonia (2012)
Journal Article: Language Knowledge and Earnings in Catalonia (2012)
Working Paper: Language knowledge and earnings in Catalonia (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2010-07

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