Occupational selection in multilingual labor markets: the case of Catalonia

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to measure the effect that knowing the Catalan language has on individuals' comparative advantage to perform certain jobs in Catalonia (Spain), where Catalan and Spanish coexist. Design/methodology/approach -Using census data for 1991 and 1996, and for individuals born in Spain, the paper first estimates a Probit model for individuals' level of Catalan proficiency in order to correct for the possible endogeneity of Catalan knowledge, as it may be jointly determined with occupational selection or be a reflection of unobserved human capital or innate ability. Then, it estimates a bivariate Probit model for the probability of choosing a given occupation conditional on a given Catalan proficiency level. Findings -The paper finds that advanced proficiency in Catalan reinforces selection into being employed, being an entrepreneur, and into white-collar occupations and communication-intensive jobs. Being able to read and speak Catalan increases selection into white collar occupations by between 11 and 16 percentage points, while writing Catalan increases by 4 to 7 percentage points the probability of engaging in services, and government and educational activities. Practical implications -Because census data are cross-sectional panel effects on language selection cannot be analyzed. Nevertheless, the paper's results suggest that investing in learning the local language, at the firm and the government level, improves job matching and assimilation of workers to multilingual economies. The authors suggest a cost-benefit analysis to assess the effectiveness of language policies for further research. Originality/value -The results contribute to the scarce literature on the economic value of a language, i.e. on how much language knowledge as a form of human capital reinforces individuals' comparative advantage to perform certain tasks.

Russian language skills and employment in the Former Soviet Union

“…First, given the strict regulation of language requirements in public sector occupations, language‐proficient workers are more likely to be selected into the public sector (Di Paolo, ). Second, language proficiency also increases the selection into communication‐intensive jobs such as those in trade, services, government and education, among others (Quella and Rendon, ). The DIS allows us to test whether these observations hold in our context.…”

“…Additionally, consistent with the findings in Table , we find that Russian‐speaking males are more likely to be employed in government, education and health care (largely state organizations). As Quella and Rendon () argue, these are sectors where high‐level communication skills are particularly needed as individuals need to relate to others not only through reading and speaking but also by producing written documents such as reports and instructions.…”

Knowledge of Catalan, Public/Private Sector Choice and Earnings: Evidence from a Double Sample Selection Model

“…In fact, using Census data of 1991 and 1996 (that is, even before the imple mentation of the linguistic reform of 1998), Rendon (2007) shows that knowledge of Cata lan has a substantial impact on the probability of employment among nativeborn individu als and immigrants from the rest of Spain. Moreover, Quella and Rendon (2009) suggest that the skills of speaking and writing Catalan have a significant effect on employment prospects, especially in whitecollar occupations, services, government and education. Finally, a recent study by Di Paolo and Raymond (2010) stresses the existence of significant earnings returns to Catalan proficiency (defined as the ability to speak and write in Catalan) among first and second generation immigrants in Catalonia.…”