Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Jun 29;18(6):e0287711. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287711. eCollection 2023.
At least half of the world population is bilingual, but lifetime financial gains from early exposure to multiple languages are largely unknown. In this study, we analyze individual earnings of bilinguals in the US using 15 years of Census data and an augmented wage model, accounting for cognitive, manual, and interpersonal skills derived from O*NET job task descriptors via sparse principal component method. Using unconditional quantile regression, we find evidence that language skills mostly benefit individuals at the lower end of the earnings distribution. While our analysis does not establish causality, it underscores the potential of early language acquisition to mitigate income inequality by enhancing the employment prospects of low-income individuals. We also highlight the favorable cost-benefit ratio of language acquisition in childhood, when learners face no monetary opportunity costs and can achieve greater levels of fluency.
世界上至少有一半的人口是双语者，但从早期接触多种语言中获得的终身经济收益在很大程度上是未知的。在这项研究中，我们使用了 15 年的人口普查数据和一个扩展的工资模型，通过稀疏主成分方法，根据 O*NET 工作任务描述得出认知、体力和人际交往技能，分析了美国双语者的个人收入。通过无条件分位数回归，我们发现语言技能主要有益于收入分配较低端的个体。虽然我们的分析不能确定因果关系，但它强调了早期语言习得通过提高低收入个人的就业前景来缓解收入不平等的潜力。我们还强调了儿童时期语言习得的有利成本效益比，因为学习者没有货币机会成本，并且可以达到更高的流利度。
