Individuals who are more likely to have training in English earn significantly higher relative wages and have better occupational outcomes, according to a study by Tanika Chakraborty at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and Shilpi Kapur Bakshi at The Energy and Resources Institute in India. Studying a policy intervention in India that abolished teaching English in public primary schools, the researchers found that a 10% lower probability of learning English in primary schools leads to a decline in weekly wages by 8%. On average, this implies 26% lower wages for those exposed to the policy change. The high English-language premium in the labor market is driven at least in part by the lack of occupational mobility for individuals with little or no English skills but otherwise similar educational attainment, they say.
Source: English language premium: Evidence from a policy experiment in India
