[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eps/cepswp/11264.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Importance of Foreign Language Skills in the Labour Markets of Central and Eastern Europe: An assessment based on data from online job portals

Author

Listed:
  • Beblavý, Miroslav
  • Fabo, Brian
  • Lenaerts, Karolien
Abstract
In a globalised world, knowledge of foreign languages is an important skill. Especially in Europe, with its 24 official languages and its countless regional and minority languages, foreign language skills are a key asset in the labour market. Earlier research shows that over half of the EU27 population is able to speak at least one foreign language, but there is substantial national variation. This study is devoted to a group of countries known as the Visegrad Four, which comprises the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Although the supply of foreign language skills in these countries appears to be well-documented, less is known about the demand side. In this study, we therefore examine the demand for foreign language skills on the Visegrad labour markets, using information extracted from online job portals. We find that English is the most requested foreign language in the region, and the demand for English language skills appears to go up as occupations become increasingly complex. Despite the cultural, historical and economic ties with their German-speaking neighbours, German is the second-most-in-demand foreign language in the region. Interestingly, in this case there is no clear link with the complexity of an occupation. Other languages, such as French, Spanish and Russian, are hardly requested. These findings have important policy implications with regards to the education and training offered in schools, universities and job centres.

Suggested Citation

  • Beblavý, Miroslav & Fabo, Brian & Lenaerts, Karolien, 2016. "The Importance of Foreign Language Skills in the Labour Markets of Central and Eastern Europe: An assessment based on data from online job portals," CEPS Papers 11264, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:eps:cepswp:11264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ceps.eu/system/files/SR%20No%20129%20Foreign%20Language%20Requirements_0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melitz, Jacques & Toubal, Farid, 2014. "Native language, spoken language, translation and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 351-363.
    2. 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.
    3. Nikolaos Askitas & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2009. "Google Econometrics and Unemployment Forecasting," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 55(2), pages 107-120.
    4. Dalia Marin, 2011. "The Opening Up of Eastern Europe at 20: Jobs, Skills and Reverse Maquiladoras in Austria and Germany," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume II, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Peter Kuhn & Mikal Skuterud, 2004. "Internet Job Search and Unemployment Durations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 218-232, March.
    6. Weiguo Zhang & Gilles Grenier, 2012. "How can Language be linked to Economics? A Survey of Two Strands of Research," Working Papers 1206E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    7. Nikolaos Askitas & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2015. "The internet as a data source for advancement in social sciences," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(1), pages 2-12, April.
    8. Oh, Chang Hoon & Travis Selmier, W. & Lien, Donald, 2011. "International trade, foreign direct investment, and transaction costs in languages," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 732-735.
    9. Peter Kuhn & Hani Mansour, 2014. "Is Internet Job Search Still Ineffective?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(581), pages 1213-1233, December.
    10. Armstrong, Alex, 2015. "Equilibria and efficiency in bilingual labour markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 204-220.
    11. Peter Kuhn, 2014. "The internet as a labor market matchmaker," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-18, May.
    12. Barslund, Mikkel & Busse, Matthias, 2016. "How mobile is tech talent? A case study of IT professionals based on data from LinkedIn," CEPS Papers 11692, Centre for European Policy Studies.
    13. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Bound, John & Brown, Charles & Mathiowetz, Nancy, 2001. "Measurement error in survey data," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 59, pages 3705-3843, Elsevier.
    15. Alan Duncan & Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2015. "Russian language skills and employment in the Former Soviet Union," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 23(3), pages 625-656, July.
    16. Amelie F. Constant & Martin Kahanec & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2012. "The Russian–Ukrainian earnings divide," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 20(1), pages 1-35, January.
    17. Martin Guzi & Pablo de Pedraza García, 2015. "A web survey analysis of subjective well-being," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(1), pages 48-67, April.
    18. Paul W. Miller & Barry R. Chiswick, 1999. "Language skills and earnings among legalized aliens," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 63-89.
    19. Coombs, Christopher & Cebula, Richard, 2009. "Are there rewards for language skills? Evidence from the earnings of registered nurses," MPRA Paper 49646, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. repec:iza:izawol:journl:y:2014:p:18 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Melitz, Jacques, 2008. "Language and foreign trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(4), pages 667-699, May.
    22. Yao, Yuxin & van Ours, Jan C., 2015. "Language skills and labor market performance of immigrants in the Netherlands," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 76-85.
    23. Yao, Y. & van Ours, J.C., 2015. "Language Skills and Labor Market Performance of Immigrants in the Netherlands," Other publications TiSEM 8df5e344-eb4e-4c90-9429-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    24. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    26. Roberto Antonietti & Massimo Loi, 2014. "The demand for foreign languages in Italian manufacturing," Working Papers 57, AlmaLaurea Inter-University Consortium.
    27. Hoyt Bleakley & Aimee Chin, 2004. "Language Skills and Earnings: Evidence from Childhood Immigrants," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 481-496, May.
    28. repec:lmu:muench:19230 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. Antonio Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2019. "English skills, labour market status and earnings of Turkish women," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 669-690, November.
    3. Jacek Liwiński, 2019. "The wage premium from foreign language skills," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 691-711, November.
    4. Michele Gazzola & Daniele Mazzacani, 2019. "Foreign language skills and employment status of European natives: evidence from Germany, Italy and Spain," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 713-740, November.
    5. Astghik Mavisakalyan, 2017. "Returns to language skills in transition economies," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 416-416, December.
    6. Brian Fabo, 2020. "The English and Russian Language Proficiency Premium in the post-Maidan Ukraine – an Analysis of Web Survey Data," Discussion Papers 57, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    7. Jan Drahokoupil & Brian Fabo, 2022. "The limits of foreign-led growth: Demand for skills by foreign and domestic firms," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 152-174, January.
    8. Brian Fabo & Martin Kahanec, 2020. "The Role of Computer Skills on the Occupation Level," European Journal of Business Science and Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, vol. 6(2), pages 87-99.
    9. Antonio Di Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2019. "“English skills, labour market status and earnings of Turkish women”," AQR Working Papers 201901, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Jan 2019.
    10. Jan Drahokoupil & Brian Fabo, 2019. "The limits of foreign-led growth: Demand for digital skills by foreign and domestic firms in Slovakia," Working and Discussion Papers WP 7/2019, Research Department, National Bank of Slovakia.
    11. Hahm, Sabrina & Gazzola, Michele, 2022. "The Value of Foreign Language Skills in the German Labor Market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    12. Zhiling Wang & Thomas de Graaff & Peter Nijkamp, 2023. "Differences in Heterogeneous Returns to Foreign Language Use at Work Among Natives and Migrants in Europe," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 17(1), pages 1-37, June.
    13. Sandra M. Leitner & Oliver Reiter, 2020. "Employers’ Skills Requirements in the Austrian Labour Market: On the Relative Importance of ICT, Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills over the Past 15 Years," wiiw Working Papers 190, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    14. Zhou, Yonghong & Zhu, Rong & Zheng, Xian, 2020. "Second language skills and labor market outcomes: Evidence from the handover of Hong Kong," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabo, B., 2017. "Towards an understanding of job matching using web data," Other publications TiSEM b8b877f2-ae6a-495f-b6cc-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Chiswick, Barry R. & Wang, Zhiling, 2019. "Social Contacts, Dutch Language Proficiency and Immigrant Economic Performance in the Netherlands," GLO Discussion Paper Series 419, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Bonin, Holger, 2017. "The Potential Economic Benefits of Education of Migrants in the EU," IZA Research Reports 75, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Gao, Wenshu & Smyth, Russell, 2011. "Economic returns to speaking 'standard Mandarin' among migrants in China's urban labour market," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 342-352, April.
    5. Karolien Lenaerts & Miroslav Beblavý & Brian Fabo, 2016. "Prospects for utilisation of non-vacancy Internet data in labour market analysis—an overview," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, December.
    6. Hahm, Sabrina & Gazzola, Michele, 2022. "The Value of Foreign Language Skills in the German Labor Market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Lucia Kureková & Miroslav Beblavý & Anna Thum-Thysen, 2015. "Using online vacancies and web surveys to analyse the labour market: a methodological inquiry," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Godoy, Ricardo & Reyes-Garcia, Victoria & Seyfried, Craig & Huanca, Tomas & Leonard, William R. & McDade, Thomas & Tanner, Susan & Vadez, Vincent, 2007. "Language skills and earnings: Evidence from a pre-industrial economy in the Bolivian Amazon," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 349-360, June.
    9. Chiswick, Barry R. & Wang, Zhiling, 2016. "Social Contacts, Dutch Language Proficiency and Immigrant Economic Performance in the Netherlands: A Longitudinal Study," IZA Discussion Papers 9760, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Kaspar W thrich, 2013. "Set Identification of Generalized Linear Predictors in the Presence of Non-Classical Measurement Errors," Diskussionsschriften dp1304, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    11. Sukanya Basu, 2018. "Age-of-Arrival Effects on the Education of Immigrant Children: A Sibling Study," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 474-493, September.
    12. Henderson, Daniel J. & Polachek, Solomon W. & Wang, Le, 2011. "Heterogeneity in schooling rates of return," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1202-1214.
    13. Antonio Di Paolo & Aysit Tansel, 2015. "Returns to Foreign Language Skills in a Developing Country: The Case of Turkey," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 407-421, April.
    14. Dovì, Max-Sebastian, 2019. "Does higher language proficiency decrease the probability of unemployment? Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-11.
    15. Serneels, Pieter & Beegle, Kathleen & Dillon, Andrew, 2017. "Do returns to education depend on how and whom you ask?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 5-19.
    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. L. Pieroni & G. d’Agostino & D. Lanari & M. Scarlato, 2024. "Immigrant Labour Market Outcomes: New Insights from a Lack of Language Proficiency in Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 10(1), pages 293-327, March.
    18. Petri Böckerman & John Cawley & Jutta Viinikainen & Terho Lehtimäki & Suvi Rovio & Ilkka Seppälä & Jaakko Pehkonen & Olli Raitakari, 2019. "The effect of weight on labor market outcomes: An application of genetic instrumental variables," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 65-77, January.
    19. Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & Audrey Light, 2010. "Interpreting Degree Effects in the Returns to Education," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(2).
    20. Jongkwan Lee & Anthony Niu & Hee-Seung Yang, 2022. "Language Proficiency and Subjective Well-being: Evidence from Immigrants in Australia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1847-1866, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • C8 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eps:cepswp:11264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Margarita Minkova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepssbe.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.