PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - A. Nilesh Fernando
TI  - Shackled to the Soil? Inherited Land, Birth Order, and Labor Mobility
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.57.2.0219-10014R2
DP  - 2020 Feb 11
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 0219-10014R2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2020/02/03/jhr.57.2.0219-10014R2.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2020/02/03/jhr.57.2.0219-10014R2.full
AB  - The inheritance of wealth promotes occupational choice, but may restrict it where its use is constrained by limited markets and cultural norms. This paper investigates the effects of inheriting agricultural land in rural India and finds that while larger inheritances, on average, increase future household consumption, first-born sons do not experience these gains. For firstborns, inheriting land reduces migration and entry into non-agricultural 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 first-borns and its interaction with inherited land.