Inheritance and women’s empowerment: the heterogeneous effect of property rights

Suteau, Margaux ORCID: 0009-0007-2691-9057 (2025) Inheritance and women’s empowerment: the heterogeneous effect of property rights. Review of Economics of the Household. ISSN 1569-5239

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Abstract

This paper investigates the role of household socio-economic characteristics in shaping responses to policy interventions when traditional norms are strong, focusing on the impact of land inheritance amendments on women’s empowerment in India. Leveraging changes to the Hindu Succession Act, which granted women the right to inherit ancestral property, and a simple conceptual framework with testable prediction, I show that the diverging results that can be found in the literature about the amendments can be explained by the heterogeneous responses to such policy changes. Using representative survey data, I find that the amendments positively affected education, especially among women from rural, landowning households with smaller plots of land. These women also experienced improved marriage market outcomes. The impact on female labor force participation varied across the socioeconomic spectrum, with more educated women showing increased participation in higher-paying jobs, while less educated women in rural areas either left the workforce or transitioned to less demanding occupations. This research contributes to understanding the complex dynamics of policy responses, highlighting the importance of considering the interplay between cultural practices, household characteristics, and socioeconomic factors in policy design and implementation, especially in contexts of high inequality.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Social Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education > I20 - General J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
Date Deposited:	28 Nov 2025 14:51
Last Modified:	19 Dec 2025 17:21
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130362

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