Customary Norms, Inheritance, and Human Capital: Evidence from a Reform of the Matrilineal System in Ghana
研究加纳一项改革如何增加母系群体子女从父亲继承土地的权利，发现受影响的男孩受教育年限减少0.9年，表明传统规范通过替代效应影响人力资本投资。
We study the role of traditional norms in land allocation and human capital investment. We exploit a policy experiment in Ghana that increased the land that children from matrilineal groups could inherit from their fathers. Boys exposed to the reform received 0.9 less years of education—an effect driven by landed households, for whom the reform was binding. We find no effect for girls, whose inheritance was de facto unaffected. These patterns suggest that before the reform matrilineal groups invested more in education than they would if unconstrained, to substitute for land inheritance, underscoring the importance of cultural norms.