Exports and Intergenerational Mobility

Abstract

Using eight rounds of the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys spanning 16 years and exploiting the US-Vietnam BTA in 2001 as a large export shock, we investigate the impact of an export market expansion on intergenerational occupational mobility in Vietnam. Our analysis suggests that the BTA has led to greater upward absolute occupational mobility among sons and daughters in their 20s. However, relative occupational mobility, inversely related to the gradient of the child’s occupational rank as a function of the parent’s, decreases as a result of the BTA. Our results suggest that the BTA improves occupational mobility for an average child in younger age groups but more so for a child born to top-ranked parents. Also, the BTA increases human capital, especially college education for sons and daughters and vocational training only for sons. Furthermore, higher individual and initial province-level human capital facilitates occupational mobility through the BTA.

Keywords: International trade, Export Market Access, Intergenerational Mobility