Wage Returns to English Proficiency in Poland

We investigate the effect of English language proficiency on the wages of native full-time employees in Poland. Using a unique data set with information on over 600,000 survey respondents polled over the five-year period from 2013 to 2017, we employ an IV approach founded on a natural experiment - namely, the reform of foreign language instruction in Polish schools. Our preferred estimates indicate that monthly wages for those individuals with ‘good’ or ‘very good’ knowledge of English exceeded the wages of those with ‘no English’ (or those with just a conversational proficiency) by nearly 60% for men and more than 50% for women. The estimates are statistically significant for both genders, and suggest quantitatively relevant wage returns for proficiency in English.