Unintended Consequences of Women's Inheritance Rights on Female Mortality in India

Daniel Rosenblum from Dalhousie University, shares his views on unintended consequences of women's inheritance rights on female mortality in India. Daniel Rosenblum is the first person who has published this article to investigate the possibility that giving women inheritance rights increases the cost of daughters and, thus, raises female child mortality rates or lowers fertility rates. This is not to suggest that a rise in female child mortality is caused by parents consciously trying to kill their daughters. It may be the effect of a subtle drop in nutrition or health services that slightly raises the probability of a child dying and that can only be detected in aggregate mortality estimates.