published in: Journal of Population Economics, 2005, 18 (4), 631–647
This paper is concerned with the relationship among family members in the determinants of
destination language proficiency among immigrants. A model of immigrant language
proficiency is augmented to include dynamics among family members. It is tested using data
on a sample of recent immigrants. Children are shown to have a negative effect on their
mother’s language proficiency, but no effect on their father’s. There is a substantial positive
correlation between the language skills of spouses. This is due to the correlation between
spouses in both the measured determinants and the unmeasured determinants of destination
language skills among spouses.
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