Women's inheritance rights and intergenerational transmission of resources in India

This brief summarizes the women's inheritance rights and intergenerational transmission of resources in India for the period 1986-1994. The author use inheritance patterns over three generations of individuals to assess the impact of changes in the Hindu succession act that grant daughters equal coparcenary birth rights in joint family property that were denied to daughters in the past. The author show that the amendment significantly increased daughter's likelihood to inherit land, but that even after the amendment, substantial bias persists. Our results also indicate a robust increase in educational attainment of daughters, suggesting an alternative channel of wealth transfer.