Article On Inheritance Law In India

Amanda Caitlin Kerr (Clemson University – John E. Walker Department of Economics) recently published an article entitled, Inheritance Laws, Educational Attainment & Child Labor: Evidence from Indian States. Below is an abstract of the article:

This paper uses bargaining framework to examine how the introduction of female inheritance rights implemented in four Indian states between 1986 and 1994 impacts the educational achievement and labor force participation of children affected by the ability to inherit their father’s land. I investigate changes to inheritance laws implemented that increased women’s inheritance rights. Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series for India (IPUMS India) I find the probability of primary completion rose by 5.83 percentage points, and the probability of child labor force participation decreased by 2.86 percentage points for children living in states that implemented reforms relative to control states. In a sample with a 51 percent primary completion rate and an 8.8 percent employment rate for children ages 10-14, these results indicate an 11.5 percent increase in primary completion and child labor force participation decreasing to just over two-thirds of the mean. Performing a triple difference analysis, I find that these results are larger for female children and Hindu children, who are directly affected by the inheritance laws put into place throughout the observed years of data.