Productive assets promote the economic well-being of the rural poor. However, where cultural obligations and market frictions limit the exchange or ability to relinquish such assets, they may restrict access to high-return economic opportunities and undermine asset benefits causing a microeconomic parallel to the ‘resource curse’. Using an instrumental variables strategy and variation arising from sibling sex composition and Hindu inheritance customs that favor sons, I test this hypothesis by estimating the long-term causal effect of inheriting agricultural land in rural India. Consistent with standard models, inheriting land facilitates borrowing and increases household consumption. Yet, where the ability to fully utilize land through markets is severely constrained cultural obligations or land market transaction costs, the effect on consumption is entirely attenuated and negative for those who inherit at an early age. Those who inherit land are significantly less likely to migrate to urban areas and enter non-agricultural work in rural areas; effects that are accentuated by such frictions. These findings suggest that inheriting land greatly influences occupational trajectories and can suppress consumption to an extent that may overwhelm its direct benefit.

中文翻译：

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束缚在土壤上？继承土地、出生顺序和劳动力流动

生产性资产促进农村贫困人口的经济福祉。然而，当文化义务和市场摩擦限制了交换或放弃此类资产的能力时，它们可能会限制获得高回报的经济机会并破坏资产收益，从而导致与“资源诅咒”类似的微观经济。使用工具变量策略和由兄弟姐妹性别构成和有利于儿子的印度教继承习俗引起的变化，我通过估计继承印度农村农业土地的长期因果效应来检验这一假设。与标准模式一致，继承土地有利于借贷，增加家庭消费。然而，当通过市场充分利用土地的能力受到文化义务或土地市场交易成本的严重限制时，对于那些在早期继承的人来说，对消费的影响完全减弱并且是负面的。继承土地的人向城市迁移和在农村从事非农工作的可能性显着降低；这种摩擦会加剧这种影响。这些研究结果表明，继承土地极大地影响了职业轨迹，并且可以在一定程度上抑制消费，从而可能压倒其直接收益。