This paper applies the theoretical literature on nonparametric bounds on
treatment effects to the estimation of how limited English proficiency (LEP)
affects wages and employment opportunities for Hispanic workers in the
United States. I analyze the identifying power of several weak assumptions
on treatment response and selection, and stress the interactions between LEP
and education, occupation and immigration status. I show that the
combination of two weak but credible assumptions provides informative ...
This paper applies the theoretical literature on nonparametric bounds on
treatment effects to the estimation of how limited English proficiency (LEP)
affects wages and employment opportunities for Hispanic workers in the
United States. I analyze the identifying power of several weak assumptions
on treatment response and selection, and stress the interactions between LEP
and education, occupation and immigration status. I show that the
combination of two weak but credible assumptions provides informative upper
bounds on the returns to language skills for certain subgroups of the
population. Adding age at arrival as a monotone instrumental variable also
provides informative lower bounds.
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