Citation:
Abstract:
According to traditional Islamic inheritance principles only the son of a deceased man can exclude
his male agnates from inheritance and preserve his estate within the nuclear household. In this study,
I examine whether the son preference and fertility behavior of Muslims couples respond to the risk of
inheritance expropriation by their extended family. I exploit cross-sectional and time variation in
the application of the Islamic inheritance exclusion rule in Indonesia: between Muslim and non-Muslim populations affected by different legal systems, across men with different sibling sex
composition, and before and after a change in Islamic law that allowed female children to exclude
male relatives. I find that Muslim couples that are more affected by the exclusion rule exhibit
stronger son preference, practice sex-differential fertility stopping, attain a higher proportion of sons
and have larger families than non-Muslims or Muslims for whom the exclusion rule is less binding.