I study the effects of export growth on the skill premium and educational attainment in Thailand. I develop an overlapping generations model to analyze schooling decisions of households when export growth creates more job opportunities in unskilled sectors. An increase in the unskilled wage can reduce the skill premium and encourage early school dropouts. However, a higher unskilled wage can also enable more schooling among credit-constrained households via an income effect, especially when schooling is not free. The net effect may differ depending on factors like household wealth and the ability of the child. I use Thailand's household data from 1995 to 2019 to empirically test my model's predictions, exploiting provincial variation in trade exposure. On average, the effect of the fall in skill premium slightly dominates the income effect, leading to a net decrease of 0.1-0.6 percentage points in school enrollment for each one percent increase in export exposure. Nonetheless, the effect of export exposure is likely to be more positive among highly credit-constrained households and among children of higher ability.

I study whether Thailand's rapid export expansion increases intergenerational educational mobility. Export growth results in a rapid increase in income while lowering skill premia. Using an overlapping generations model, I demonstrate that both the increase in income and the decrease in returns to education lead to higher intergenerational mobility. I empirically test my theoretical predictions using Thailand's household data from 2019. Exploiting variations in provincial labor shares and cohorts of exposure to export shocks, I find that export exposure increases intergenerational educational mobility. Upward mobility is more prevalent among poorer households, suggesting the role of income effects on credit-constrained households, while downward mobility is likely to be mainly driven by the decline in skill premia.