Gender-Neutral Inheritance Laws, Family Structure, and Women’s Status in India Sulagna Mookerjee.pdf

该【Gender-Neutral Inheritance Laws, Family Structure, and Women’s Status in India Sulagna Mookerjee 】是由【金钏】上传分享，文档一共【18】页，该文档可以免费在线阅读，需要了解更多关于【Gender-Neutral Inheritance Laws, Family Structure, and Women’s Status in India Sulagna Mookerjee 】的内容，可以使用淘豆网的站内搜索功能，选择自己适合的文档，以下文字是截取该文章内的部分文字，如需要获得完整电子版，请下载此文档到您的设备，方便您编辑和打印。:..TheWorldBankEconomicReview,2017,1–18doi:-NeutralInheritanceLaws,FamilyStructure,andWomen?sStatusinIndiaSulagnaMookerjee*AbstractThispaperexamineswhethereconomicempowermentofwomenimprovestheirautonomywithintheirmaritalhousehold,andinvestigatesthemechanism,byexploitingvariationfromalegalreformaimedatimprovingwomen??sparticipationindecision-makingbutattheexpenseoftheoldergenerationofhouseholdmembersandnotattheexpenseoftheirhus-,?sdecision-makingauthority,whichtheycanexerttomoveoutofthejointhousehold,aswellaswithmen?sincentives,sincemenhaveweaker?nanciallinkswiththeirparentspost-,evenwithinjointfamilies,?cation:J12,J16,K11,O12Keywords:Inheritance,WomenWelfare,FamilyEconomics,IntrahouseholdBargainingWomen?shealth,education,autonomy,eshavebeenamajorconcernforpolicymakersinIndiaoverthepastfewdecades(DasGuptaandBhat1997,Kingdon2002,Borooah2004).Beyondtheintrinsicimportanceofguaranteeingwomenbasichumanrights,itiswidelybelievedthatsocialrightsandes,suchashighereconomicproduc-tivity,andimprovedhealthstatusandeducationalattainmentforchildren(Qian2008,LukeandMunshi2011,ChattopadhyayandDuflo2004,Duflo2012).Totheextentthatwomen?ssocialstatusistiedtotheirfinancialworth,gender-neutralemploymentandassetownershiprightsarekeytoimprovingtheirsocioeco--etylikeIndia,esstoland,theprimarysourceofwealthandopportunitiesforproductiveactivities(Mearns1999,RoyandTisdell2002).Moreover,culturalconservatismoftenmakesitdifficultformarriedwomentoparticipateinthelabormarket,-standingandwidelyprevalentculturalinstitutioninIndia,infact,,themost*etownUniversitySchoolofForeignServiceinQatar;heremailaddressissulagna.******@,twoanonymousreferees,JoshuaKinsler,GregorioCaetano,Nes?eYildiz,UmairKhalil,mentsandfeed-://academic./,pleaseemail:@:..2Mookerjeecommonfamilytypehasbeena?joint?familywheremenresidewiththeirparentsandextendedfamilyinthesamehousehold,andwomenmoveintotheirhusband?shomepost--makingagentsinajointfamilysetup(AndersonandEswaran2009,).Therefore,anypolicythatseekstostrengthenwomen?sstatuswithintheirmaritalhouseholdsmustbeabletoimprovetheirbargainingpositionsnotonlywithrespecttotheirhusbandsbutalsowithrespecttotheothermembersofthehusband??nuclear?familiesconsistingofjustthecoupleandtheirchildren,therebyeliminatingthepossibilityoftheextendedfamilyplayingdominantdecision-?eededinimprovingtheirautonomyintheirmaritalhouseholds,preciselybyprecipitatingashiftinfamilystructurefromjointfami-,-heeffectofgender-neutralinheritancelawsontheautonomyofmarriedwomen,?sautonomy;treatedwomenaresignifi-cantlymorelikelytohaveasayinhouseholddecisionsandtovisithealthclinicsandmarketswithoutrequiringpermissionorescorts,(2008)andHeathandTan(2014),mypaperdiffersintheinterpreta-?sautonomyinthecontextofaspousalbargainingmodel(Maitra2004,,HeathandTan2014),Ishowthatthehusbandsofthewomenexposedtothereformalsohavehigherparticipationindecision-making;instead,urfortheothermembersofthemaritalhousehold,typicallythehusband?,arobustnesscheckperformedonwomenbelongingtothereli-giousgroupsexcludedfromthepurviewofthereformshowsnosucheffectforthemwhileaplacebotestsupportsmyidentificationstrategy?esacrossreformandnon-reformstates,,Idemonstratethatapolicyoriginallyintendedtotransferresourcesfrommentowomenhas,infact,resultedinanintergenerationaltransferofdecision-,injointfamilies,thepotentialincreaseinthewife?swealthpost-,thereformmighthaveresultedinashiftintheprevailingfamilystructureitself,fromjointtonuclearhouseholds?thiswouldbeinlinewiththefindingsofLukeandMunshi(2011),whichdocumentsthatarelativeincreaseinwomen?-civetowomenexertingauthorityandmakingdecisionsrelativelyearlyintheirmarriage,,urthroughtheeffectofthereformonboththewife?sandthehusband??,sincemennowfacethelikelihoodofadeclineintheshareofpropertythattheyinheritfromtheirfamily,theirincentivestostayonwiththe1Allendorf(2013)(2008)discussesvariablesrelatedtofreedomofmovementonly,esdenotingparticipa-tionindecision-(2014)alsoperformasimilaranalysisbutprimarilyfocusonlabor-forcepartic-(2014)studiesasimilarquestioninthecontextofKenya.:..,Ishowthattherewasindeedashiftinfamilystructurefromjointtonuclearhouseholdsfollowingtheamendment,amongcouplesmarriedpost-,evenamongcouplesresidinginjointhouseholds,bothhusbands?andwives?,giventheprevailingsocialstructure,ountforthepresenceoftheextendedfamilyasdecision-?statusinjointfamiliescruciallyimpactsthehealthoftheirchildren(Coffeyetal.,2015),thisfindingsuggeststhatthereformcouldhavemajorpositiverepercussionswithinjointhouseholdsbeyondimprovingwomen?sdecision-,emorelikelytodecideonhouseholdmattersjointlywiththeirhusbandsratherthanontheirown,?sautonomy,butoneneedstoexercisecautionwhileinterpretingthisasanoverallwel-fareimprovement,,Sikhs,Budhists,andJains(henceforthreferredtoasHindusonlyforbrevity)(ancestralpropertyoranypropertyorassetsheldjointlybytheextendedfamily,.,land)andindividualproperty(anythingacquiredbyanindividualonhisownwithinhislifetime).Daughtershadequalrightstotheirfather?sindividualpropertyonceaHindumalediedintestate(.,withoutawill),,however,enjoyedarighttojointfamilypropertybybirthandwereregardedasbelongingtothe?Hinducoparcenary.?Beingcoparcenersimpliedthattheirshareofthepropertycouldnotbewilledaway,,5mostofthepropertysettlementswereordancewiththeHSA,andwomenendedupinheritingsignificantlylessthanmen,,missiononIndiastatesthat??.InordertoeliminatethisgenderinequalityinherentintheHSA,,AndhraPradeshin1986,TamilNaduin1989,,--specific,andthereweretwomainschoolsoflaw?,whichprevailedinmostofthecountrybutnotbyDayabhaga,whichprevailedinBengalandAssamandtreatedallpropertyasindividualproperty(Agarwal1994,Roy2008).5Deininger,Goyal,andNagarajan(2013)citesthisproportiontobe65%.-.:..,,Goyal,andNagarajan(2013)andDeiningeretal.(2013)establishthattheamendmentsignificantlyincreasedwom-en??essuchasfreedomofmovement(Roy2008),education(Roy2015,Deininger,Goyal,andNagarajan2013),laborforceparticipation(HeathandTan2014),domes-ticabuse(Amaral2014),femalechildmortality(Rosenblum2015),andmaritalconflict(AndersonandGenicot2015).Icontributetothissecondstrandbyprovidingthefirstinsightintothemechanismthroughwhichthereformaffectstheactualbargainingdynamicswithinthehousehold,-makingwithintheextendedfamily,whichparticularlyunderscorestheimportanceofintergenerationalbargaining(,,Debnath2015).,-;aslongaswomenwerenotmarriedatthetimethatthelawwasdeemedtohavecomeintoeffect,,butasanexample,yisttakesthevalue1ifwomanireportsbeingallowedtogotothemarketaloneorhavingasayinmajorpurchasedecisionsinherhousehold,and0otherwise(.,es).LetStbeadummyvariablethattakesthevalue1ifawomanbelongstooneofthereformstates,,AftSttakesthevalue1ifawomanlivesinareformstateandhasbeenmarriedafterthereform,