TY - JOUR T1 - Shackled to the Soil? Inherited Land, Birth Order, and Labor Mobility JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour SP - 491 LP - 524 DO - 10.3368/jhr.57.2.0219-10014R2 VL - 57 IS - 2 AU - A. Nilesh Fernando Y1 - 2022/03/01 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/2/491.abstract N2 - The inheritance of wealth promotes occupational choice, but may restrict it where its use is constrained by limited markets and cultural norms. This work investigates the effects of inheriting agricultural land in rural India and finds that while larger inheritances, on average, increase future household consumption, firstborn sons do not experience these gains. For firstborns, inheriting land reduces migration and entry into nonagricultural work. In contrast, inheriting land does not influence occupational choice or migration for latter-born sons. I attribute these differences, in part, to a cultural norm of parental support incumbent on firstborns and its interaction with inherited land. ER -