“Ultimogeniture to Primogeniture: Women's Fertility or Virginity”

 Danli Wang, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics

Wen Zhou, The University of Hong Kong

 This paper seeks to provide an improved understanding of inheritance systems. Employing a cross-sectional dataset of 62 minorities located in 114 different counties, we find that the inheritance system is determined by women's virginity. Minorities with higher premarital sexual freedom are associated with a preference for ultimogeniture, and minorities valuing women's virginity prefer primogeniture. Furthermore, the empirical evidences also show that high premarital sexual freedom are associated with high fertility. Whether to choose premarital sexual freedom or women's virginity is determined by regional agricultural productivity.