Economic Returns to Speaking the Right Language(s)? Evidence from Kazakhstan's Shift in State Language and Language of Instruction

This paper investigates the economic returns to language skills and
bilingualism. The analysis is staged in Kazakhstan, a multi-ethnic
country with complex ethnic settlement patterns that has switched
its official state language from Russian to Kazakh. Using two newly
assembled data sets, we find negative returns to speaking Kazakh
and a negative effect of bilingualism on earnings while Russian was
the official state language in the 1990s. Surprisingly, the Kazakh
language continues to yield a negative wage premium 13 years after
it has been made official state language. While we do neither find
evidence for an ethnically segmented labor market nor for reverse
causality, the low economic value of the Kazakh language can be
explained by the comparatively poor quality of schools with Kazakh
as language of instruction. Based on PISA data, we illustrate that
scholastic achievements are substantially lower for pupils taught
in Kazakh, despite the official support for the titular language.
Our results suggest that switching the official state language
without appropriate investments in school resources is unlikely to
cure the economic disadvantage of a previously marginalized
language.