TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Budría, Santiago
AU  - Swedberg, Pablo
        TI  - The Impact of Language Proficiency on Immigrants' Earnings in Spain
        PY  - 2012/Oct/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 6957
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp6957
        AB  - This article uses micro-data from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey to investigate the impact of Spanish language proficiency on immigrants' earnings. The results, based on Instrumental Variables (IV), point to a substantial earnings return to Spanish proficiency, of approximately 27%. This figure varies largely across educational groups, with high-qualified workers earning a premium of almost 50%. This conspicuous complementarity between formal qualifications and language skills poses a challenge for traditional language training policies, for these typically neglect the immigrants' heterogeneous educational background.
        KW  - instrumental variables
KW  - immigration
KW  - Spanish language proficiency
KW  - earnings
        ER  -