The Returns to Language Skills in the US Labor Market # 391

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 diff erences in language acquisition profi les between immigrants from Englishand non-English-speaking countries of origin, to address problems related to endogeneity and measurement error. We fi nd signifi cantly positive returns to language skills and demonstrate that education is an important channel through which language skills aff ect wages of child migrants. Although the returns of adult migrants do not depend on education, we fi nd that child and adult migrants exhibit similar returns to language skills. JEL Classifi cation: F22, J24, J31