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The Value of Bilingualism in the U.S. Labor Market

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  • Richard Fry
  • B. Lindsay Lowell
Abstract
Much is surmised, but little is known about the value of bilingualism in today's U.S. economy. The authors use the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) to provide the first rigorous estimates of the wages of bilingual workers. Although the nominal wages of bilinguals exceed those of their monolingual peers, this pattern largely reflects the higher completed schooling of the bilinguals. In fact, regression analysis shows that bilingual skills do not make a statistically significant contribution to weekly wages, once all workers' human capital characteristics are held constant. Thus, the market little values foreign language proficiency and creates no incentive to acquire or maintain it, doubtless contributing to the relatively rapid shift to monolingualism across generations.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Fry & B. Lindsay Lowell, 2003. "The Value of Bilingualism in the U.S. Labor Market," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(1), pages 128-140, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:57:y:2003:i:1:p:128-140
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390305700107
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard A. Fry & Anthony P. Carnevale & B. Lindsay Lowell, 2001. "Understanding, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Earnings in the Immigrant Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 159-163, May.
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    5. David E. Bloom & Gilles Grenier, 1993. "Language, Employment and Earnings in the United States: Spanish-English Differentials from 1970 to 1990," NBER Working Papers 4584, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Trejo, Stephen J, 1997. "Why Do Mexican Americans Earn Low Wages?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1235-1268, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Barry Chiswick & Paul Miller, 2007. "Computer usage, destination language proficiency and the earnings of natives and immigrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 129-157, June.
    2. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2008. "Why is the payoff to schooling smaller for immigrants?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1317-1340, December.
    3. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2020. "The Economics of Language," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 348-404, June.
    4. Melitz, Jacques, 2012. "A framework for analyzing language and welfare," CEPR Discussion Papers 9091, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Stöhr, Tobias, 2015. "The returns to occupational foreign language use: Evidence from Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 86-98.
    6. Victor Ginsburgh & Jacques Melitz & Farid Toubal, 2014. "Foreign Language Learning : An Econometric Analysis," Working Papers 2014-21, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    7. Muravyev, Alexander & Talavera, Oleksandr, 2016. "Can state language policies distort students’ demand for education?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 383-399.
    8. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2005. "Computer Skills, Destination Language Proficiency and the Earnings of Natives and Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 1755, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    10. Donald R. Williams, 2011. "Multiple language usage and earnings in Western Europe," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(4), pages 372-393, July.
    11. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2019. "Health outcomes, health inequality and Mandarin proficiency in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Brindusa Anghel & Antonio Cabrales & Jesus M. Carro, 2016. "Evaluating A Bilingual Education Program In Spain: The Impact Beyond Foreign Language Learning," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 1202-1223, April.
    13. Wang, Zhiling & de Graaff, Thomas & Nijkamp, Peter, 2017. "Look Who’s Talking: On the Heterogeneous Returns to Foreign Language Use at Work among Natives and Migrants in Europe," GLO Discussion Paper Series 104, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Sorrenti, Giuseppe, 2017. "The Spanish or the German apartment? Study abroad and the acquisition of permanent skills," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 142-158.
    15. Barry Chiswick & Paul Miller, 2010. "Occupational language requirements and the value of English in the US labor market," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 353-372, January.
    16. Wang, Haining & Smyth, Russell & Cheng, Zhiming, 2017. "The economic returns to proficiency in English in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 91-104.
    17. Zhiling Wang & Thomas de Graaff & Peter Nijkamp, 2018. "Barriers of Culture, Networks, and Language in International Migration: A Review," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 5, pages 73-89.
    18. Paul Miller, 2009. "The Gender Pay Gap in the US: Does Sector Make a Difference?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 52-74, March.

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