Language learning: human capital investment or consumption?

This paper focuses on foreign language learning as human capital investment or consumption. We apply the human capital investment framework to foreign language learning and enlarge it by the consumption motive. Based on a novel dataset of close to 5000 language course participants in 14 countries wo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Empirica 2022-11, Vol.49 (4), p.897-948
Main Authors: Huber, Matthias, Sommerfeld, Ann-Marie, Uebelmesser, Silke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capital investments
Consumption
Datasets
Econometrics
Economics
Economics and Finance
Education
Employment
European Integration
Foreign investment
Foreign language learning
Foreign languages
Host country
Human capital
Human capital investment
Immigrants
Industrial Organization
International Economics
Labor market
Language acquisition
Language learning
Language policy
Language proficiency
Learning
Macroeconomics/Monetary Economics//Financial Economics
Migration
New dataset
Original Paper
Public Finance
Second language learning
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Summary:This paper focuses on foreign language learning as human capital investment or consumption. We apply the human capital investment framework to foreign language learning and enlarge it by the consumption motive. Based on a novel dataset of close to 5000 language course participants in 14 countries worldwide, we estimate individual and country-level determinants of the different motives for language learning and of the expected use of language skills in the labour market. We highlight possible spillovers from the consumption motive to a professional use, which emerge mostly in a "tied-mover" context. This provides guidance for targeted language policies.
ISSN:1573-6911
0340-8744
1573-6911
DOI:10.1007/s10663-022-09548-7