Trade Liberalization and Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Economies

This paper investigates the relationship between episodes of trade liberalization and intergenerational educational mobility in low- and middle-income economies. Using multiple opinion and household surveys covering 59 countries, we construct a measure of exposure to trade liberalization based on individuals' ages at the time of liberalization. Exploiting variation in the timing of liberalization episodes across countries, we assess how exposure to trade liberalization is associated with the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. We find that exposure to trade liberalization is associated with increased intergenerational mobility. The effect is strongest for those exposed during childhood and diminishes for older cohorts. Mobility gains are more pronounced in upper-middle-income countries, while we do not detect differential effects by gender or areas of residence. However, the increase in mobility appears to be driven primarily by increased downward mobility rather than upward mobility, raising doubts about the overall beneficial effect of trade liberalization on intergenerational

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