Job Training, English Language Skills, and Employability: Evidence from an Experiment in Urban India

B-Tier
Journal: Economic Development & Cultural Change
Year: 2025
Volume: 73
Issue: 4
Pages: 2131 - 2156

Authors (4)

Prashant Loyalka (not in RePEc) Dinsha Mistree (not in RePEc) Robert Fairlie (University of California-Los A...) Saurabh Khanna (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Low-income individuals in developing countries are often inadequately prepared for employment because they lack key labor market skills. We explore how employability and wage outcomes are related to English language skills in a novel, large-scale randomized field experiment conducted in Delhi, India, involving 1,260 low-income individuals. Experimental estimates indicate that a job training program that emphasizes English language skills training substantially increases English language skills as well as employability and estimated wages (as assessed by hiring managers through interviews) for regular jobs and employability for jobs that specifically require English language skills. Program effects hold regardless of gender, social class, or prior employment. We furthermore find that participants enjoy improved employability and estimated wage outcomes because the program improves their English language skills. Taken together, our results suggest that English language skills training, which is surprisingly underutilized in developing countries, may provide considerable economic opportunities for individuals from low-income backgrounds.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/734458
Journal Field
Development
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-25