Customary Norms, Inheritance, and Human Capital: Evidence from a Reform of the Matrilineal System in Ghana

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: La Ferrara, Eliana; Milazzo, Annamaria
• 署名单位: Bocconi University; Bocconi University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20150342
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 166-185
• 关键词: PROPERTY-RIGHTS; LABOR; LAND; FAMILY; fertility; transfers; marriage; AFRICA; GENDER; CHOICE

摘要

We study the role of traditional norms in land allocation and human capital investment. We exploit a policy experiment in Ghana that increased the land that children from matrilineal groups could inherit from their fathers. Boys exposed to the reform received 0.9 less years of education-an effect driven by landed households, for whom the reform was binding. We find no effect for girls, whose inheritance was de facto unaffected. These patterns suggest that before the reform matrilineal groups invested more in education than they would if unconstrained, to substitute for land inheritance, underscoring the importance of cultural norms.