The Effects of Female Land Inheritance on Economic Productivity in Ghana
Nathan Barker
How does female land inheritance affect economic productivity in an economy with growing non-farm economic opportunities? I study this question in Ghana, by examining variation in inheritance customs across ethnic groups. In patrilineal groups, land passes from fathers to sons. In contrast, inheritance rules are more flexible in matrilineal groups; land can pass to both men and women. This flexibility improves productivity by allowing men and women to better optimize their labor allocation, taking into account gender differences in the outside options available. In matrilineal groups, women are more likely to inherit land, which leads to them managing farms and supplying labor to their own plots. Their inheritance induces men to exit agriculture and work for a wage. This improves male labor productivity and produces higher per capita consumption. In contrast, because women face additional barriers to participating in the labor market, male inheritance under patrilineal inheritance is associated with women supplying labor to male-owned plots, and supplying less labor in total. Two mechanisms explain the positive effects of female inheritance on male labor productivity: (1) men who exit farming capture the returns to their skill, because the wage labor market rewards cognitive skill, while farming does not, and (2) the wage labor market offers an earnings premium over agriculture. This gain does not come at the expense of reduced farm productivity, which does not differ across the two inheritance regimes. Male-only inheritance customs thus not only foster gender inequality, but can also facilitate labor misallocation, thereby lowering overall productivity.
Event: World Bank Land Conference 2024 - Washington
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