Entitled to Property: Inheritance Laws, Female Bargaining Power, and Child Health in India

Arbeitspapier

Child height is a significant predictor of human capital and economic status throughout adulthood. Moreover, non-unitary household models of family behavior posit that an increase in women's bargaining power can influence child health. We study the effects of an inheritance law change, the Hindu Succession Act Amendment (HSAA), which conferred enhanced inheritance rights to unmarried women in India, on child height. We find robust evidence that the HSAA improved the height and weight of children. In addition, we find evidence consistent with a channel that the policy improved the women's intrahousehold bargaining power within the household, leading to improved parental investments for children. These study findings are also compatible with the notion that children do better when their mothers control a more significant fraction of the family resources. Therefore, policies that empower women can have additional positive spillovers for children's human capital.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14498

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation ; Health Behavior ; Health Insurance, Public and Private ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Demographic Economics: Public Policy ; Tort Law and Product Liability; Forensic Economics ; Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Cultural Economics: Religion ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: human capital ; height ; bargaining ; parental investments ; developing countries ; India

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hossain, Md Shahadath ; Nikolov, Plamen
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/245549
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET