PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ferrer, Ana
AU  - Green, David A.
AU  - Riddell, W. Craig
TI  - The Effect of Literacy on Immigrant Earnings
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.XLI.2.380
DP  - 2006 Mar 31
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 380--410
VI  - XLI
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XLI/2/380.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XLI/2/380.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2006 Mar 31; XLI
AB  - We examine the impact of literacy on immigrant earnings and the sources of lower returns to education and experience among immigrants. We find that the native-born literacy distribution dominates that for immigrants. However, the two groups obtain similar returns to literacy skills, contrary to discrimination-based explanations for immigrant—native-born earnings differentials. Among the university-educated, literacy differences account for about two-thirds of the earnings gap. However, low returns to foreign experience have a larger impact on this differential. Among the less educated, literacy differences and differences in the returns to experience have similar effects on the earnings differential.