TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Isphording, Ingo E.
AU  - Sinning, Mathias
        TI  - The Returns to Language Skills in the US Labor Market
        PY  - 2012/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 7080
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp7080
        AB  - This paper uses data from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) to study the returns to language skills of child and adult migrants in the US labor market. We employ an instrumental variable strategy, which exploits differences in language acquisition profiles between immigrants from English- and non-English-speaking countries of origin, to address problems related to endogeneity and measurement error. We find significantly positive returns to language skills and demonstrate that education is an important channel through which language skills affect wages of child migrants. Although the returns of adult migrants do not depend on education, we find that child and adult migrants exhibit similar returns to language skills.
        KW  - international migration
KW  - language skills
KW  - labor productivity
        ER  -