Indigenous language skills and the labor market in a developing economy: Bolivia

A little understood but widespread feature of many developing countries is the existence of population groups whose members do not speak the dominant language (or languages) of the country, that is, the language that predominates in the modern or formal sector of the economy. This characteristic exists in each of the major regions of developing economies. Section II provides a brief review of the literature on the labor-market implications of limited dominant language proficiency in developing economies, focusing on the research in Latin America. The data set analyzed for this study is described in Section III. Section IV presents the analyses of the determinants of dominant language skills, and the determinants of labor-force participation and labor-market earnings among men and women, with an emphasis on the effects of language skills on these labor-market outcomes. The article closes with a summary and conclusion.