Globalization and the returns to speaking English in South Africa

Type Working Paper - Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, Discussion Paper No. 523
Title Globalization and the returns to speaking English in South Africa
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2004
Page numbers 0-0
URL http://fordschool.umich.edu/rsie/workingpapers/Papers501-525/r523.pdf
Abstract
This paper takes a novel approach to trying to disentangle the impact of globalization on wages by focusing on how the return to speaking English, the international language of commerce, changed as South Africa re-integrated with the global economy after 1993. The paper finds that the return to speaking English increased overall and that within racial groups the return increased primarily for Whites but not for Blacks.