Bilingual schooling and earnings: Evidence from a language-in-education reform

We estimate the wage effects of bilingual education for the first time using a reform that introduced bilingualism in Catalan schools. Variation across years of schooling and birth cohorts provides identification. We find substantial effects of bilingual education, which increases baseline returns t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Cappellari, Lorenzo, Di Paolo, Antonio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/121584
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/121584
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ensenyament bilingüe
Reforma de l'educació
Llengua i ensenyament
Bilingual education
Educational change
Language and education
Descripción
Sumario:We estimate the wage effects of bilingual education for the first time using a reform that introduced bilingualism in Catalan schools. Variation across years of schooling and birth cohorts provides identification. We find substantial effects of bilingual education, which increases baseline returns to education by about 20%. Robustness checks show that effects stem from exposure to the language-in-education reform and are neither a consequence of unobservable determinants of educational attainment nor an artifact of education-cohort specific trends in wages. The reform was mostly beneficial for individuals of non-Catalan background from low parental background, thus achieving its goal of leveling the playing field in a bilingual society.