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Journal of African Economies Advance Access originally published online on January 31, 2008
Journal of African Economies 2008 17(3):490-525; doi:10.1093/jae/ejm037
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© The author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Language and Labour Markets in South Africa

Katy Cornwell* and Brett Inder

Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics, Monash University

* Corresponding author: Katy Cornwell. E-mail: katy.cornwell{at}buseco.monash.edu

This paper considers the role of language in employment outcomes and labour earnings in South Africa over the period 1996–8. Our pooled cross-section comprises more than 160,000 working-age adults, and the analysis considers the decision to participate in the labour force, employment outcomes and labour earnings. After conditioning on a number of socio-economic and demographic factors, we find that having English as one's mother tongue is one of the pivotal determinants of employment and labour earnings. Allowing for language effects leads to a much diminished role of race/population group as a driver of labour market success and earnings. There seems to be little variation in employment outcomes or earnings across the different African languages.

JEL classification: J24, 015


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