Does knowing foreign language pay off in the Russian labor market?

2019 ◽  
pp. 122-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ksenia V. Rozhkova ◽  
Sergey Yu. Roshchin
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Wage Premium ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
Foreign Language Skills

Though foreign language is widely accepted as an important form of human capital and a factor of economic growth, the labor market outcomes for foreign language skills in developing economies remain understudied. This research explores the returns to different levels of foreign language skills in the Russian labor market and tries do disentangle the differences in return associated with job characteristics. The results indicate positive wage premium for foreign language skills in Russia which approximately equals to 9% when controlling for job-related characteristics. Moreover, wage premium for advanced level of knowledge reaches 24%. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in the economic returns across age groups, levels of education, and occupations. The highest return to foreign language skills is obtained by managers and results to be 13%. For elementary occupations the estimate appears to be insignificant which proves that return to foreign language skills exists only for a limited number of specific jobs.

scholarly journals The wage premium from foreign language skills

Empirica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Liwiński
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Wage Premium ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Wage Equation ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
Key Competences ◽  
Pooled Sample ◽  
Foreign Language Skills

Abstract The globalisation of labour markets makes language skills one of the key competences required by employers nowadays. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the wage premium from the foreign language skills earned by Poles. Poles seem to be a good case study, because the Polish language is not used for international communication and as many as 58% of Poles command at least one foreign language. I use data from three waves (2012–2014) of the Human Capital Balance survey with a pooled sample of about 35,000 individuals. I estimate a wage equation with the Heckman correction for selection to employment and I check for robustness with propensity score matching. I find that the advanced command of a foreign language yields a wage premium of 11% on average. Interestingly, I find a much higher wage premium from proficiency in Spanish (32%), French (22%) or Italian (15%) than from proficiency in English (11%) or German (12%).

scholarly journals The Role of Family and Friends in Return Migration and Its Labor Market Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Joseph Gillespie ◽  
Clara H. Mulder ◽  
Christiane von Reichert
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Significant Relationship ◽  
Return Migration ◽  
Labor Market Outcomes ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Market Stability ◽  
Onward Migration

AbstractDrawing on survey data on individuals’ motives for migration in Sweden (N = 2172), we examine the importance of family and friends for return versus onward migration, including their importance for different age groups and in different communities on the rural–urban spectrum. The results point to a significant relationship between the importance of family and return versus onward migration, with family importance decreasing with age among returning migrants. At the same time, the importance of friends for returning increases with age. The findings did not suggest a significant relationship between urbanicity and returning versus migration elsewhere. Based on a subset of respondents who were employed prior to migrating (n = 1056), we further examined labor market outcomes for onward versus returning migrants. The results broadly indicate that return migrations are linked to lower likelihoods of labor market deterioration and improvement, suggesting greater labor market stability for return vis-à-vis onward migrations. However, the importance of family for returning (versus moving elsewhere) is associated with higher likelihoods of labor market deterioration and improvement compared with staying the same, indicating greater volatility in labor market outcomes when the importance of family is considered.

Information Technology Skills and Labor Market Outcomes for Workers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilal Atasoy ◽  
Rajiv D. Banker ◽  
Paul A. Pavlou
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Labor Market Outcomes ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
It Use ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Disadvantaged Groups ◽  
It Training ◽  
It Skills

Job erosion is a major concern globally, especially given the COVID-19 pandemic. Unemployment and low wages remain pressing societal challenges in the wake of increased automation, more so for traditionally disadvantaged groups in the labor market, such as women, minorities, and the elderly. However, workers who possess relevant information technology (IT) skills may have an edge in an increasingly digital economy. In this study, we examine the role of IT skills in labor market outcomes for workers, using a household IT use survey from an emerging economy that captures detailed, individual-level data on IT skills, which are also integrated with data on workers’ wages, occupations, and industries between 2007 and 2015. The results indicate that basic IT skills increase individuals’ employment probability, which is driven by both higher labor force participation and a higher probability of transitioning from unemployment to employment, after accounting for the decision to participate in the workforce. Advanced IT skills do not provide a significant incremental effect on employment probability on top of basic IT skills. However, having advanced IT skills helps workers to earn higher wages while incrementally increasing the probability that they are employed in higher-paid jobs. Interestingly, the effect of basic IT skills on employment is significantly larger for the female and older workforce that typically has a higher preference for flexible work options. These results emphasize the importance of providing necessary IT access and offering basic IT training to traditionally disadvantaged groups to close the IT skills gap and the digital divide. We offer implications for the future of work, education, and public policy for designing IT training policies for workers, students, and organizations to stimulate employment with higher wages, particularly in developing economies and for traditionally disadvantaged segments of the workforce, such as women and the elderly, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Increasing Engagement in French and Francophone Studies: Structured Journaling on the Emotions in La Fayette's La princesse de Clèves

PMLA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 130 (5) ◽  
pp. 1476-1480
Author(s):  
Logan J. Connors
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Francophone Studies ◽  
Classroom Discussions ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Emotional Events ◽  
Difficult Subject ◽  
Foreign Language Skills

Literary representations of emotions fascinate us as readers; they connect to us logically and naturally because we experience in our daily lives many of the emotional events depicted in novels, plays, and poems. Students are intrigued by the similarities and differences between their everyday feelings and the emotions represented in literature. Emotions are thus interesting processes to study, and in classroom discussions and activities most students have something to say about them. For this reason, I use emotion (broadly defined) as an important subject of inquiry in my literature and culture classes. In what follows, I share a structured journaling assignment based on emotion that helps students read with more detail, improves their foreign language skills, and boosts their engagement with difficult subject matter.

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