This paper provides an introduction and overview of my research on the Economics of Language. The approach is that language skills among immigrants and native-born linguistic minorities are a form of human capital. There are costs and benefits associated with this characteristic embodied in the...

How valuable is education for entrepreneurs’ performance as compared to employees’?What might explain any differences? And does education affect peoples’ occupationalchoices accordingly? We answer these questions based on a large panel of US labor forceparticipants. We show that education...

Research on self-employment has increased during recent years and particular attention has been paid to self-employment dynamics and the factors influencing entry and exit rates from self-employment. Using a large panel data set for Sweden, this paper investigates variations in recruitment to...

We document ethnic segregation in secondary schools in England in 2001 inorder to contribute to the debate on the degree of ethnic group social integration.We use indices of dissimilarity and isolation to compare the patterns ofsegregation across nine ethnic groups. We find that levels of ethnic...

There is no robust empirical support for the effect of financial incentives on the decision towork in self-employment rather than as a wage earner. In the literature, this is seen as apuzzle. We offer a focus on the opportunity cost, i.e. the wages given up as an employee.Information on income...

While results are starting to emerge, not much is known yet about the dynamics of the labormarkets of the former Eastern economies, especially in the context of the current FinancialCrisis. Arguably, this is mainly due to paucity of (panel) data. By examining labor markettransitions, earnings...

Identifying the effect of parental incomes on child outcomes is difficult due to the correlation of unobserved ability, education levels and income. Previous research has relied on the use of instrumental variables to identify the effect of a change in household income on the young adult...

In this paper we adopt a theory of class positions based on employmentrelations to assess what implications individuals’ class positions have for theireconomic life. In particular we consider economic security (the risk ofunemployment), economic stability (the variability component in...

This paper analyzes the impact of IRCA 1986, a U.S. amnesty, on immigrants’human capital development and labor market outcomes. Because of IRCA, the 1975-1981 arrivals were all legalized by 1990. However, many of the 1982-1986 arrivalsremained illegal. Using the California Latino immigrants in...

The career prospects of newly recruited employees differ substantially within an organization.The stars experience a considerable growth in earnings; others can hardly maintain theirentry salaries. This article sheds light on the mechanisms generating the observedheterogeneity in earnings...