Increased migration, global trade and the introduction of digital labour platforms call for a better understanding of the
mechanisms that can enhance economic and labour market outcomes in the face of increasing disparities in culture, language and identity. The
article contributes to the literature on labour market returns on language skills, which is very heterogeneous and context-specific, by
carrying out a systematic review of that literature. The meta-regression analysis estimates the returns on language skills that come from
socio-economic, institutional and ethnolinguistic factors along with controls for the study design. The meta-regression results for the
labour market returns that stem from knowledge of the local state language, a significant local minority language or the business
language provide evidence that knowing the more influential language is associated with higher labour market rewards. Linguistic diversity
has a negative effect on the returns to skills in the business language but increases the returns to the local state language. Urbanisation
has a negative, though quantitatively modest, effect on returns to language skills in the business language, whilst the GDP level increases
the returns to minority language skills and unemployment increases returns to skills in the business language and the local state
language.
*Adamchik, V., Hyclak, T., & Sedlak, P. (2019). Poland in an integrated European economy: Are foreign language skills valued by employers in the Polish labor market?Journal of Transition Studies Review, 26(1), 31–55.
*Aldashev, A., Gernandt, J., & Thomsen, S. L. (2009). Language usage, participation, employment and earnings: Evidence for foreigners in West Germany with multiple sources of selection. Labour Economics, 16(3), 330–341.
Armstrong, A. (2015). Equilibria and efficiency in bilingual labour market. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 112(C), 204–220.
*Azam, M. C., Chin, A., & Prakash, N. (2013). The returns to English-language skills in India. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 61(2), 335–367.
Begg, C. B. (1997). Publication bias in meta-analysis: A Bayesian data-augmentation approach to account for issues exemplified in the passive smoking debate: CommentStatistical Science, 121, 241–244.
*Berman, E., Lang, K., & Siniver, E. (2003). Language-skill complementarity: returns to immigrant language acquisition. Labour Economics, 10(3), 265–290.
Besevegis, E., & Pavlopoulos, V. (2008). Acculturation patterns and adaptation of immigrants in Greece. In (pp. 23–34): NATO Science for Peace and Security Series, E: Human and Societal Dynamics.
*Bleakley, H., & Chin, A. (2004). Language skills and earnings: Evidence from childhood Immigrants. Review of Economics and Statistics, 861, 481–496.
*Bormann, S. -K., Ridala, S., & Toomet, O. (2019). Language skills in an ethnically segmented labour market: Estonia 1989–2012. International Journal of Manpower, 40(2), 304–327.
*Bratsberg, B., & Ragan, J. (2002). The impact of host-country schooling on earnings: A study of male immigrants in the United States. The Journal of Human Resources, 37(1), 63–105.
*Budría, S., & Swedberg, P. (2012). The impact of language proficiency on immigrants’ earnings in Spain. Retrieved from [URL]
Budría, S., Martinez de Ibarreta, C. & Swedberg, P. (2017). The impact of host language proficiency across the immigrants’ earning distribution in Spain. IZA J Develop Migration 7, 12.
*Cappellari, L., & Di Paolo, A. (2015). Bilingual schooling and earnings: Evidence from a language-in-education reform. Research report 9431, Bonn: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit. Retrieved from: [URL]
*Carnevale, A. P., Fry, R. A., & Lowell, B. L. (2001). Understanding, speaking, reading, writing, and earnings in the immigrant labor market. American Economic Review, 91(2), 159–162.
*Casale, D., & Posel, D. (2011). English language proficiency and earnings in a developing country: the case of South Africa. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 40(4), 385–393.
*Casey, T., & Dustmann, C. (2008). Intergenerational transmission of language capital and economic outcomes. Journal of Human Resources, 43(3), 660–687.
Chan, K. L. (2016). Power Language Index. Which are the world’s most influential languages? World Economic Forum on ASEAN. Retrieved from [URL]
Chiswick, B. R. (1998). Hebrew language usage: determinants and effects on earnings among immigrants in Israel. Journal of Population Economics, 11(2), 253–271.
*Chiswick, B. R., & Larsen, N. (2015). Russian Jewish immigrants in the United States: The adjustment of their English language proficiency and earnings in the American Community Survey. Contemporary Jewry, 35(3), 191–209.
*Chiswick, B. R., Lee, Y. L., & Miller, P. W. (2005). Immigrant earnings: A longitudinal analysis. Review of Income and Wealth, 51(4), 485–503.
Chiswick, B. R., & Miller, P. W. (1995). The endogeneity between language and earnings: international analyses. Journal of Labor Economics, 13(2), 246–288.
*Chiswick, B. R., & Miller, P. W. (2002). Do enclaves matter in immigrant adjustment? Research report 449, Bonn: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit. Retrieved from: [URL]
*Chiswick, B. R., & Miller, P. W. (2010). Occupational language requirements and the value of English in the US labor market. Journal of Population Economics, 23(1), 353–372.
*Chiswick, B. R., & Miller, P. W. (2016). Does bilingualism among the native born pay? Research report 9791. Bonn: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit. Retrieved from: [URL]
Chiswick, B. R., Patrinos, H., & Hurst, M. E. (2000). Indigenous language skills and the labor market in a developing economy: Bolivia. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 48(2), 349–367.
*Chiswick, B. R., & Repetto, G. (2001). Immigrant adjustment in Israel: Literacy and fluency in Hebrew and earnings. In S. Djajic (Ed.), International Migration: Trends, Policy and Economic Impact (pp. 204–228). New York: Routledge. [Reprint in The Economics of Language: International Analyses, edited by Barry R. Chiswick and Paul W. Miller. New York: Routledge, 2007.]
*Chiswick, B. R., & Wang, Z. (2016). Social contracts, Dutch language proficiency and immigrant economic perfotmance in the Netherlands: A longitudinal study. Research report 9760. Bonn: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit. Retrieved from: [URL]
*Christofides, L. N., & Swidinsky, R. (2010). The economic returns to the knowledge and use of a second official language: English in Quebec and French in the Rest-of-Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 36(2), 137–158.
Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions. (2008). (J. Higgins & S. Green. Eds.). England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
*Cohen-Goldner, S., & Eckstein, Z. (2008). Labor mobility of immigrants: Training, experience, language, and opportunities. International Economic Review, 49(3), 837–872.
Constant, A. F., Kahanec, M., & Zimmermann, K. F. (2012). The Russian-Ukrainian earnings divide. Economics of Transition, 20(1), 1–35.
*Cornwell, K., & Inder, B. (2008). Language and labour markets in South Africa. Journal of African Economies, 17(3), 490–525.
*Di Paolo, A., & Raymond, J. (2012). Language knowledge and earnings in Catalonia. Journal of Applied Economics, 15(1), 89–118.
*Di Paolo, A., & Tansel, A. (2015). Returns to foreign language skills in a developing country: The Case of Turkey. The Journal of Development Studies, 51(4), 407–421.
*Di Paolo, A., & Tansel, A. (2019). English skills, labour market status and earnings of Turkish women. Retrieved from [URL]
Donado, A. (2017). Foreign languages and their impact on unemployment. Labour, 31(3), 265–287.
Dreher, A. (2006). Does globalization affect growth? Evidence from a new Index of Globalization. Applied Economics, 38(10), 1091–1110.
Drinkwater, S. J., & O’Leary, N. C. (1997). Unemployment in Wales: Does language matter?Regional Studies, 31(6), 583–591.
*Drydakis, N. (2012). Ethnic identity and immigrants’ wages in Greece. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(3), 389–402.
Duncan, A., & Mavisakalyan, A. (2015). Russian language skills and employment in the Former Soviet Union. Economics of Transition, 23(3), 625–656.
*Dustmann, C., & Fabbri, F. (2003). Language proficiency and labour market performance of immigrants in the UK. The Economic Journal, 113(489), 695–717.
*Dustmann, C., & van Soest, A. (2001). Language fluency and earnings: estimations with misspecified indicators. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 83(4), 663–674.
*Dustmann, C., & Van Soest, A. (2002). Language and the earnings of immigrants. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55(3), 473–492.
Duval, S. (2005). The trim and fill method. In H. R. Rothstein, A. J. Sutton, & M. Borenstein (Eds.), Publication Bias in Meta-Analysis: Prevention, Assessment and Adjustments. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Duval, S., & Tweedie, R. (2000). Trim and fill: A simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics, 56(2), 455–463.
Egger, M., Davey Smith, G. M. S. & Minder, C. (1997). Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. In (Vol. 3151, pp. 629–634): BJM.
Egger, P. H., & Lassmann, A. (2012). The language effect in international trade: A meta-analysis. Economics Letters, 116(2), 221–224.
Ethnologue. (2017). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twentieth Edition (SIL International).
Fabo, B., Beblavý, M., & Lenaerts, K. (2017). The importance of foreign language skills in the labour markets of central and Eastern Europe: assessment based on data from online job portals. Empirica, 44(3), 487–508.
*Gao, W., & Smyth, R. (2011). Economic returns to speaking ‘standard Mandarin’ among migrants in China’s urban labour market. Economics of Education Review, 30(2), 342–352.
Gazzola, M., & Mazzacani, D. (2019). Foreign language skills and employment status of European natives: evidence from Germany, Italy and Spain. Empirica, 461, 713–740.
Gazzola, M., & Wickström, B. -A. (2016). The Economics of Language Policy (M. Gazzola & B. -A. Wickström. Eds.). Cambridge, MA: The MITT Press.
Ginsburgh, V., & Weber, S. (2016). The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language (V. Ginsburgh & S. Weber. Eds.): Palgrave Macmillan UK..
*Ginsburgh, V., & Prieto-Rodriguez, J. (2007). Returns to foreign languages of native workers in the EU. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 64(3), 599–617.
*Gonzalez, L. (2005). Nonparametric bounds on the returns to language skills. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 20(6), 771–975.
Grin, F. (2003). Language Planning and Economics. Current Issues in Language Planning, 4(1), 1–66.
*Grin, F., & Sfreddo, C. (1998). Language-based earnings differentials on the Swiss labour market: is Italian a liability?International Journal of Manpower, 19(7), 520–532.
*Guven, C., & Islam, A. (2015). Age at migration, language proficiency, and socioeconomic outcomes: evidence from Australia. Demography, 521, 513–542.
*Hall, M. & Farkas, G. (2008). Does human capital raise earnings for immigrants in the low-skill labor market?Demography, 45(3), 619–639.
Hanushek, E. A. (1998). The evidence on class size, Occasional Paper 98-1, W. Allen Wallis Institute of Political Economy, University of Rochester. Retrieved from [URL]
*Hayfron, J. E. (2010). Language training, language proficiency and earnings of immigrants in Norway. Applied Economics, 33(15), 1971–1979.
*Hellerstein, J., & Neumark, D. (2003). Ethnicity, language, and workplace segregation: Evidence from a new matched employer-employee data set. Annales d’Economie et de Statistique, 71/721, 19–78.
*Henley, A., & Jones, R. E. (2005). Earnings and linguistic proficiency in a bilingual economy. Manchester School, 73(3), 300–200.
*Hwang, S. -S., Xi, J., & Cao, J. (2010). The conditional relationship between English language proficiency and earnings among US immigrants. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33(9), 1620–1647.
*Isphording, I. (2013). Returns to local and foreign language skills: Causal evidence from Spain. Retrieved from [URL]
Kahanec, M., & Zaiceva, A. (2009). Labor market outcomes of immigrants and non- citizens in the EU: An East-West comparison. International Journal of Manpower, 1/2(30), 97–115.
*Kim, J. (2003). Education, English language proficiency, and earnings of male immigrants in the US labor market. Journal of Business & Economics Research, 1(3), 17–26.
*Klein, C. (2004). La valorisation des compétences linguistiques: importance du sexe et/ou du statut professionnel? 11e Journées d’étude sur les données longitudinales, Dijon, 27–28 mai.
*Kroncke, C., & Smith, K. (1999). The wage effects of ethnicity in Estonia. Economics of Transition, 7(1), 179–199.
Krueger, A. (2003). Economic Considerations and Class Size. Economic Journal, 113(485), F34–F63.
*Lancee, B. (2010). The economic returns of immigrants’ bonding and bridging social capital: The case of the Netherlands. International Migration Review, 44(1), 202–226.
*Lang, G., Siniver, E. (2006). The return to English in a non-English speaking country: Russian immigrants and native Israelis in Israel. NBER working paper series, Working Paper 12464.
*Lecker, T. (1997). Language usage and earnings among minorities. Journal of Socioeconomics, 26(5), 525–532.
Leping, K. -O., & Toomet, O. (2008). Emerging ethnic wage gap: Estonia during political and economic transition. Journal of Comparative Economics, 36(4), 599–619.
*Levanon, A. (2014). Who succeeds as an immigrant? Effects of ethnic community resources and external conditions on earnings attainment. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 361, 13–29.
*Levinsohn, J. (2007). Globalization and the returns to speaking English in South Africa. In A. Harrison (Ed.), Globalization and Poverty (pp. 629–646): University of Chicago Press.
*Lewis, E. G. (2011). Immigrant-native substitutability: The role of language ability. Research report 17609. Cambridge: NBER Working Paper Series. Retrieved from: [URL].
Lindemann, K. (2013). The effects of ethnicity, language skills, and spatial segregation on labour market entry success in Estonia. European Sociological Review.
*Lindley, J. (2002). The English language fluency and earnings of ethnic minorities in Britain. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 49(4), 467–487.
Mincer, J. (1958). Investment in human capital and personal income distribution. Journal of Political Economy, 66(4), 281–302.
*Miranda, A., & Zhu, Y. (2013a). The causal effect of deficiency at English on female immigrants’ labor market outcomes in the UK. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7841.
*Miranda, A., & Zhu, Y. (2013b). English deficiency and the native-immigrant wage gap. Economics Letters, 118(1), 38–41.
Männasoo, K., Hein, H., & Ruubel, R. (2018). “The contributions of human capital, R&D spending and convergence to total factor productivity growth”, Regional Studies 52 (12): 1598–1611.
Rendon, S. (2007). The Catalan premium: Language and employment in Catalonia. Journal of Population Economics, 20(3), 669–686.
Ridala, S. (2020). Big language minority and small language majority: language skills and unemployment in Latvia. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Saarela, J., & Finnäs, F. (2003). Unemployment and native language: the Finnish case. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 32(1), 59–80.
*Saiz, A., & Zoido, E. (2005). Listening to what the world says: Bilingualism and earnings in the United States. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 87(3), 523–538.
Savina, G., Haelg, F., Potrafke, N. & Sturm, J. -E. (2019): The KOF Globalisation Index – Revisited, Review of International Organizations, 14(3), 543–574,
Stanley, T. D. (2001). Wheat from Chaff: Meta-Analysis as Quantitative Literature Review. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15(3), 131–150.
Sterne, J. A. C. (2009). Meta-analysis on Stata: An updated collection from the Stata Journal. In. College Station: TX: Stata Press.
*Stöhr, T. (2015). The returns to occupational foreign language use: Evidence from Germany. Labour Economics, 32(C), 86–98.
*Toomet, O. (2011). Learn English, not the local language! Ethnic Russians in the Baltic States. American Economic Review, 101(3), 526–531.
*Trejo, S. J. (2001). Intergenerational progress of Mexican-origin workers in the U.S. labor market. Research report 377. Bonn: Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit. Retrieved from: [URL]
*Wang, H., Smyth, R., & Cheng, Z. (2017). The economic returns to proficiency in English in China. China Economic Review, 43(C), 91–104.
*Warman, C., Sweetman, A., & Goldmann, G. (2015). The portability of new immigrants’ human capital: Language, education, and occupational skills. Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de politiques, 41(S1), 64–79.
*Williams, D. R. (2011). Multiple language usage and earnings in western Europe. International Journal of Manpower, 32(4), 372–393.
Yao, Y., & van Ours, J. C. (2015). Language skills and labor market performance of immigrants in the Netherlands. Labour Economics, 341, 76–85.
*Zhen, Y. (2015). English proficiency and earnings of foreign-born immigrants in the USA from 1980 to 2000: The effect of minority-language Enclave. Forum for Social Economics, 45(4), 329–349.
*Zibrowius, M. (2012). Convergence or divergence? Immigrant wage assimilation patterns in Germany. Research report 479. DIW Berlin: SOEP – Das Sozio-oekonomische Panel. Retrieved from: [URL].
* An asterisk before the name of authors indicates that the study was included in the meta-regression analysis.
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Männasoo, Kadri, Miina Hõbenael & Svetlana Ridala
2024. Language skills and unemployment: post-Soviet bilingualism in Latvia. Post-Communist Economies 36:2 ► pp. 222 ff.
Brando, Nico & Sergi Morales-Gálvez
2023. Capabilities and Linguistic Justice. Political Studies 71:3 ► pp. 676 ff.
Mitchell, Rosamond & Emre Güvendir
2023. The language affiliations of mobile students in the international university. International Journal of Multilingualism 20:3 ► pp. 966 ff.
Hahm, Sabrina & Michele Gazzola
2022. The Value of Foreign Language Skills in the German Labor Market. Labour Economics 76 ► pp. 102150 ff.
Morales, Maria Cristina
2021. Linguistic occupation segregation along the U.S.–Mexico border: using the index of dissimilarity to measure inequality in employment among monolingual speakers and Spanish–English bilinguals. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2021:270 ► pp. 95 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.