Content area
Abstract
This thesis presents an economic analysis of language. It is divided into a theoretical and an empirical part.
The first part reviews the recent literature on the economics of language and proposes a framework for classifying the issues discussed by different authors. One of these issues, language as human capital, is then analyzed in some detail in the context of a labor supply model in which the wage rate that an individual receives is determined by combining inputs of language and other human capital. Comparative static analysis is performed with the model in order to consider situations in which people are unequal in the conditions that they face in the market for language human capital. Two ways of doing this analysis are considered: one is to assume that some people face a higher opportunity cost for acquiring language human capital; the other is to assume that they receive a lower initial endowment of language human capital. Briefly, the results suggest that people who are disadvantaged may be induced to work less and to invest less in other kinds of human capital.
The second part of the thesis presents an empirical application of some aspects of the theory, using a sample of Hispanic American males drawn from the 1976 Survey of Income and Education. Wage equations which include language attributes among the explanatory variables are estimated. Comparisons between Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites reveal that about one third of the aggregate wage difference can be explained by language attributes. It is also found that, after these attributes are taken into consideration, there is little evidence of unexplained labor market discrimination against Hispanics. Finally, probit regression equations are estimated in which the language attributes are themselves the dependent variables. Two kinds of attributes are considered: ability to speak English and shifts from Spanish to English as the language usually spoken. The results indicate a high rate of anglicization of Hispanic Americans. Factors associated positively with anglicization are time spent in the United States, education, and marriage outside the Hispanic community.
