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Immigrants often arrive with limited host-country language proficiency, yet causal evidence on how language proficiency is rewarded in hiring is scarce. Using a large-scale field experiment with thousands of fictitious resumes and manipulated cover letters, the study identifies strong positive effects on interview callbacks, especially when moving toward native-like proficiency.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/language-proficiency-and-hiring-of-immigrants-evidence-from-a-new-field-experimental-approach/298413/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/language-proficiency-and-hiring-of-immigrants-evidence-from-a-new-field-experimental-approach/298413.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Evangeline","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-11","2026-09-18",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",12,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"How does the paper identify the causal effect of language proficiency on hiring?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It estimates causal effects using a large-scale field experiment that sends thousands of fictitious resumes to employers and varies cover letters to reflect differences in language skills.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What is the main finding on interview callback rates?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Better language proficiency in the cover letter substantially increases the callback rate for a job interview; moving from the lowest level toward a level similar to natives almost doubles callbacks.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"Do the effects differ across job types and explain why language matters?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"The effect does not vary across the diverse occupation types studied. Employer survey evidence suggests improved language skills themselves are the dominant explanation rather than language skills proxying for other unobserved abilities.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},298413,1789989796,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":145,"read_time":146,"preview_page_count":4},13056703019662,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253a8e92610077?_k=1778726343310543188","DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES  \nIZA DP No. 15950  \nLanguage Proficiency and Hiring of Immigrants: Evidence from a New Field Experimental Approach  \nMagnus Carlsson Stefan Eriksson Dan-Olof Rooth  \nFEBRUARY 2023  \nDISCUSSION PAPER SERIES  \nIZA DP No. 15950  \nLanguage Proficiency and Hiring of Immigrants: Evidence from a New Field Experimental Approach  \nMagnus Carlsson  \nLinnaeus University  \nStefan Eriksson  \nUppsala University  \nDan-Olof Rooth  \nStockholm University, IZA and Linnaeus University  \nFEBRUARY 2023  \nAny opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity.  \nThe IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world’s largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society.  \nIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.  \nISSN: 2365-9793  \nIZA – Institute of Labor Economics  \n\n| Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 5–9 53113 Bonn, Germany | Phone: +49-228-3894-0\u003Cbr>Email: [publications@iza.org](publications@iza.org) | [www.iza.org](www.iza.org) |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n\nIZA DP No. 15950 FEBRUARY 2023  \nABSTRACT  \nLanguage Proficiency and Hiring of Immigrants: Evidence from a New Field Experimental Approach*  \nLabor markets in advanced economies have undergone substantial change in recent decades due to globalization, technological improvements, and organizational changes. Due to these developments, oral and written language skills have become increasingly important even in less skilled jobs. Immigrants – who often have limited skills in the host country language upon arrival – are likely to be particularly affected by the increase in language requirements. Despite this increase in literacy requirements, little is known about how immigrants’ language proficiency is rewarded in the labor market. However, estimating the causal effect of immigrants’ language skills on hiring is challenging due to potential biases caused by omitted variables, reverse causality, and measurement error. To address identification problems, we conduct a large-scale field experiment, where we send thousands of fictitious resumes to employers with a job opening. With the help of a professional linguist, we manipulate the cover letters by introducing common second-language features, which makes the resumes reflect variation in the language skills of real-world migrants. Our findings show that better language proficiency in the cover letter has a strong positive effect on the callback rate for a job interview: moving from the lowest level of language proficiency to a level similar to natives almost doubles the callback rate. Consistent with the recent development that language proficiency is also important for many low-and mediumskilled jobs, the effect of better language skills does not vary across the vastly different types of occupations we study. Finally, the results from employer surveys suggest that it is improved language skills per se that is the dominant explanation behind the language proficiency effect, rather than language skills acting as a proxy for other unobserved abilities or characteristics.  \nJEL Classification: F22, J15, J24  \nKeywords: labor migrants, language proficiency, language skills, human  \ncapital, field experiment  \nCorresponding author:  \nDan-Olof Rooth  \nSwedish Institute for Social Rese","cbCaihueBBdiRGiD","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihueBBdiRGiD","pdf",5161548,59,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"How does the paper identify the causal effect of language proficiency on hiring?\",\"answer\":\"It estimates causal effects using a large-scale field experiment that sends thousands of fictitious resumes to employers and varies cover letters to reflect differences in language skills.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the main finding on interview callback rates?\",\"answer\":\"Better language proficiency in the cover letter substantially increases the callback rate for a job interview; moving from the lowest level toward a level similar to natives almost doubles callbacks.\"},{\"question\":\"Do the effects differ across job types and explain why language matters?\",\"answer\":\"The effect does not vary across the diverse occupation types studied. Employer survey evidence suggests improved language skills themselves are the dominant explanation rather than language skills proxying for other unobserved abilities.\"}]","Language Proficiency and Hiring of Immigrants - Evidence from a New Field Experimental Approach | PDF",1789757095,149]