IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oxdevs/v49y2021i3p277-290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intergenerational effects of improving women’s property rights: evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Nayana Bose
  • Shreyasee Das

Abstract

This paper analyzes the intergenerational effects following the positive changes in women’s inheritance rights in India. Using the Indian Human Development Survey data for rural India and a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the property rights reform significantly empowered women through increased education. However, we find no intergenerational effect of the reform on children’s education. We explore two potential mechanisms to explain these results: the role of status conflict among spouses and that of a child’s birth-order and gender. Given that a woman’s bargaining power may depend on her relative position to that of her husband, we investigate this channel and find a significant decrease in children’s education in households where fathers are less educated than mothers. Accounting for a child’s birth-order and gender, we find no evidence of son-preference through the education channel.

Suggested Citation

  • Nayana Bose & Shreyasee Das, 2021. "Intergenerational effects of improving women’s property rights: evidence from India," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 277-290, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:49:y:2021:i:3:p:277-290
    DOI: 10.1080/13600818.2021.1899154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13600818.2021.1899154
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13600818.2021.1899154?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alison Booth & Hiau Kee, 2009. "Birth order matters: the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(2), pages 367-397, April.
    2. Rohini Pande & Nan Astone, 2007. "Explaining son preference in rural India: the independent role of structural versus individual factors," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(1), pages 1-29, February.
    3. Esther Duflo, 2003. "Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old-Age Pensions and Intrahousehold Allocation in South Africa," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 1-25, June.
    4. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2000. "Land Reform, Poverty Reduction, and Growth: Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 389-430.
    5. Shelley Clark, 2000. "Son preference and sex composition of children: Evidence from india," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(1), pages 95-108, February.
    6. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela & Kameri-Mbote, Patricia & Markelova, Helen, 2007. "Property rights for poverty reduction," 2020 vision briefs BB21 Special Edition, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Monique De Haan & Erik Plug & José Rosero, 2014. "Birth Order and Human Capital Development: Evidence from Ecuador," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(2), pages 359-392.
    8. Roy, Sanchari, 2015. "Empowering women? Inheritance rights, female education and dowry payments in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 233-251.
    9. Santosh Kumar, 2016. "The effect of birth order on schooling in India," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(18), pages 1325-1328, December.
    10. Meltem Dayioğlu & Murat G. Kirdar & Aysit Tansel, 2009. "Impact of Sibship Size, Birth Order and Sex Composition on School Enrolment in Urban Turkey," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(3), pages 399-426, June.
    11. Seema Jayachandran & Rohini Pande, 2017. "Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2600-2629, September.
    12. Handa, Sudhanshu, 1996. "Maternal Education and Child Attainment in Jamaica: Testing the Bargaining Power Hypothesis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 58(1), pages 119-137, February.
    13. Sonia Bhalotra & Abhishek Chakravarty & Dilip Mookherjee & Francisco J. Pino, 2019. "Property Rights and Gender Bias: Evidence from Land Reform in West Bengal," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 205-237, April.
    14. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    15. Seema Jayachandran & Ilyana Kuziemko, 2011. "Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1485-1538.
    16. Nancy Qian, 2008. "Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China: The Effect of Sex-Specific Earnings on Sex Imbalance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1251-1285.
    17. Dalton Conley & Rebecca Glauber, 2006. "Parental Educational Investment and Children’s Academic Risk: Estimates of the Impact of Sibship Size and Birth Order from Exogenous Variation in Fertility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    18. Rohini Pande, 2003. "Selective gender differences in childhood nutrition and immunization in rural India: The role of siblings," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(3), pages 395-418, August.
    19. Carmen Diana Deere & Cheryl Doss, 2006. "The Gender Asset Gap: What Do We Know And Why Does It Matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 1-50.
    20. Agnes R. Quisumbing & John A. Maluccio, 2003. "Resources at Marriage and Intrahousehold Allocation: Evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and South Africa," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(3), pages 283-327, July.
    21. Reggio, Iliana, 2011. "The influence of the mother's power on her child's labor in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 95-105, September.
    22. Marcos A. Rangel, 2006. "Alimony Rights and Intrahousehold Allocation of Resources: Evidence from Brazil," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(513), pages 627-658, July.
    23. Daniel Rosenblum, 2015. "Unintended Consequences of Women's Inheritance Rights on Female Mortality in India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(2), pages 223-248.
    24. Allendorf, Keera, 2007. "Do Women's Land Rights Promote Empowerment and Child Health in Nepal?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1975-1988, November.
    25. Shelly J. Lundberg & Robert A. Pollak & Terence J. Wales, 1997. "Do Husbands and Wives Pool Their Resources? Evidence from the United Kingdom Child Benefit," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(3), pages 463-480.
    26. Mishra, Khushbu & Sam, Abdoul G., 2016. "Does Women’s Land Ownership Promote Their Empowerment? Empirical Evidence from Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 360-371.
    27. Farzana Afridi & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay & Soham Sahoo, 2016. "Female labor force participation and child education in India: evidence from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-27, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heather Congdon Fors & Annika Lindskog, 2023. "Within‐family inequalities in human capital accumulation in India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 3-28, February.
    2. Nayana Bose & Shreyasee Das, 2021. "Women's Inheritance Rights and Fertility Decisions: Evidence from India," DETU Working Papers 2101, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    3. Yuli Ye & Qinying He & Qiang Li & Lian An, 2024. "The brother's penalty: Boy preference and girls' health in rural China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(8), pages 1748-1771, August.
    4. Heath, Rachel & Tan, Xu, 2018. "Worth fighting for: Daughters improve their mothers' autonomy in South Asia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 255-271.
    5. Zhang, Shumeng & Guo, Naijia & Zhang, Junsen, 2023. "Reexamining the effect of birth order on cognitive and non-cognitive abilities: New evidence from China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    6. Qianqian Shang & Quanbao Jiang & Yongkun Yin, 2022. "How Does Children's Sex Affect Parental Sex Preference: Preference Adaptation and Learning," Working Papers wp2022_2202, CEMFI.
    7. Lucio Esposito & Sunil Mitra Kumar & Adrián Villaseñor, 2020. "The importance of being earliest: birth order and educational outcomes along the socioeconomic ladder in Mexico," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 1069-1099, July.
    8. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Neumann, Cora, 2022. "Missing Women In Colonial India," CEPR Discussion Papers 17189, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Jaqueline Oliveira, 2019. "Birth order and the gender gap in educational attainment," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 775-803, September.
    10. Chatterjee, Jagori & Merfeld, Joshua D., 2021. "Protecting girls from droughts with social safety nets," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    11. Mendolia, Silvia & Stavrunova, Olena & Vidal-Fernandez, Marian, 2024. "Birth Order Effects on Education: Insights from Low- And Middle-Income Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 17131, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Smriti Sharma & Christophe Nordman, 2016. "The power to choose: Gender balance of power and intra-household educational spending in India," WIDER Working Paper Series 061, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Bhalotra, Sonia & Brulé, Rachel & Roy, Sanchari, 2020. "Women's inheritance rights reform and the preference for sons in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    14. Isis Gaddis & Rahul Lahoti & Hema Swaminathan, 2022. "Women's Legal Rights and Gender Gaps in Property Ownership in Developing Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(2), pages 331-377, June.
    15. Huang, Zibin & Jiang, Xu & Sun, Ang, 2024. "Fertility and delayed migration: How son preference protects young girls against mother–child separation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    16. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Quisumbing, Agnes & Doss, Cheryl & Theis, Sophie, 2019. "Women's land rights as a pathway to poverty reduction: Framework and review of available evidence," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 72-82.
    17. Coffey, Diane & Spears, Dean, 2019. "Neonatal Death in India: Birth Order in a Context of Maternal Undernutrition," IZA Discussion Papers 12288, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Baland, Jean-Marie & Cassan, Guilhem & Woitrin, Francois, 2020. "The Stopping Rule and Gender selective mortality: World Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 15128, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Wei, Xu & Zhou, Yi & Zhou, Yimin, 2022. "Signaling of earlier-born Children's endowments, intra-household allocation, and birth-order effects," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    20. Ebert, Cara & Vollmer, Sebastian, 2022. "Girls unwanted – The role of parents’ child-specific sex preference for children’s early mental development," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K36 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Family and Personal Law
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:49:y:2021:i:3:p:277-290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CODS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.