I examine the effect of English language proficiency on the occupational choices of childhood immigrants into the United States. In particular, I focus on the annual earnings and skills composition associated with immigrants' chosen occupations. Following Bleakley and Chin (2004; 2010), I use an instrumental variables approach that exploits young children's superior language acquisition abilities to estimate the causal effect of English language skills on immigrants' choice of occupation. In addition, I employ another instrument, based on Chiswick and Miller (2004), that accounts for the variation in English language acquisition difficulty among native speakers of other languages. I find that higher proficiency allows immigrants to work in more lucrative occupations. In addition, a better grasp of the English language leads immigrants to choose occupations in which communication skills -- active listening, negotiation, persuasion, reading comprehension, speaking, and writing -- are more important. These findings suggest that occupational choice is an important additional channel through which immigrants with a good command of the English language achieve better labor market outcomes.

Written by two internationally renowned experts in the field, this book explores the determinants of dominant language proficiency among immigrants and other linguistic minorities and the consequences of this proficiency for the labour market. Using empirical material from a range of countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia and Bolivia, the authors develop a range of models of the determinants of dominant language proficiency and use econometric techniques to test them and estimate the magnitude of the effects. This volume is an excellent resource for researchers and a fine reader for specialists in labour economics, linguistics as well as a number of other disciplines.

associated with occupational mobility for any group of immigrant workers.

This article investigates whether the global spread of the English language provides an inherent advantage to native English speakers. This question is studied within the context of the economics profession, where the impact of being a native English speaker on future publishing success is examined. English speakers may have an advantage because they are writing in their native language, the quality of writing is a crucial determinant of publishing success, and all the top economics journals are published in English. Using a ranking of the world's top 2.5% of economists, this article confirms that native English speakers are ranked 100 spots higher (better) than similar non-native English speakers. A variety of extensions examine and dispel many other potential explanations.