Women’s Inheritance Rights Reform and Son Preference in IndiaISER Internal Seminars

Unequal property rights are argued to contribute to the persistently low status of women in many developing countries. We investigate whether a policy reform in India that equalized inheritance rights for men and women led to daughters becoming more desirable. We find that the reform had a perverse impact, making daughters less desirable. We argue that the potential for legal reform alone to alter social norms is limited.