Abstract Increased migration, global trade and the introduction of digital labour platforms call for a better understanding of the mechanisms that can enhance economic and labour market outcomes in the face of increasing disparities in culture, language and identity. The article contributes to the literature on labour market returns on language skills, which is very heterogeneous and context-specific, by carrying out a systematic review of that literature. The meta-regression analysis estimates the returns on language skills that come from socio-economic, institutional and ethnolinguistic factors along with controls for the study design. The meta-regression results for the labour market returns that stem from knowledge of the local state language, a significant local minority language or the business language provide evidence that knowing the more influential language is associated with higher labour market rewards. Linguistic diversity has a negative effect on the returns to skills in the business language but increases the returns to the local state language. Urbanisation has a negative, though quantitatively modest, effect on returns to language skills in the business language, whilst the GDP level increases the returns to minority language skills and unemployment increases returns to skills in the business language and the local state language.

中文翻译：

---

语言技能和劳动力市场回报

摘要 越来越多的移民、全球贸易和数字劳动力平台的引入要求更好地理解在文化、语言和身份差异日益扩大的情况下可以提高经济和劳动力市场成果的机制。本文通过对文献进行系统回顾，对语言技能的劳动力市场回报文献做出了贡献，这些文献是非常异质和特定于上下文的。元回归分析估计了来自社会经济、制度和民族语言因素以及研究设计控制的语言技能回报。劳动力市场回报的元回归结果源于对当地国家语言的了解，重要的当地少数民族语言或商业语言提供证据表明，了解更有影响力的语言与更高的劳动力市场回报相关。语言多样性对商业语言技能的回报有负面影响，但会增加当地国家语言的回报。城市化对商业语言的语言技能回报有负面影响，尽管数量不大，但 GDP 水平增加了少数民族语言技能的回报，失业增加了商业语言和当地国家语言的技能回报。