Globalization and the Returns to Speaking English in South Africa

James Levinsohn

NBER Working Paper No. 10985
Issued in December 2004
NBER Program(s):   ITI

This paper takes a novel approach to trying to disentangle the impact of globalization on wages by focusing on changes in the return to speaking English, the international language of commerce, in South Africa as that country re-integrated with the global economy after 1993. The paper finds that he return to speaking English increased overall and that within racial groups the return increased primarily for Whites but not for Blacks.

(173 K)

Published:

• Harrison, Ann. Globalization and Poverty. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2007. ,
• Globalization and the Returns to Speaking English in South Africa, James Levinsohn, in Globalization and Poverty (2007), University of Chicago Press
  

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