We are pleased to alert you to ISS working paper 700, entitled English language premium in a marriage market: experimental evidence from Delhi by Tomohisa Miyamoto, one of the ISS MA Research Paper Award winners for the academic year 2020-2021.
Abstract
In India, English has become a status symbol for the wealthy and educated middle class, while at the same time creating a divide between those who speak it and those who do not. This study examines the social returns to English language skills in the marriage market in urban India by conducting a correspondence experiment on an online matrimonial website. I find that indicating strong English language skills in a profile increases the number of people interested in the profile by 38%. Further, the probability of matching with a high-caste man (marry-up) increased by 57.7 percentage points when a low-caste female profile mentions English proficiency. The results suggest that English language proficiency can expand one’s choice of potential marriage partners in the marriage market and help over-come caste barriers.
Keywords
English, return to language skills, caste, inter-caste marriage, social mobility, marriage market, field experiment.
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