Inheritance Laws, Educational Attainment, and Child Labor: Evidence from Indian States

This paper examines how the introduction of female inheritance rights, implemented in four Indian states between 1986 and 1994, affected educational achievement and labor force participation of children. Investigating time-varying state amendments to the Hindu Succession Act of 1956, which provided equal inheritance rights to male and female children, I find that reforms led to greater probability of primary school completion and lower probability of labor force participation for children. Performing a triple-difference analysis, I find that these results are larger for Hindu children, specifically Hindu females and Hindu children living in rural areas.