  Higher duration of programs that involve legal protection may entail gradual
positive changes in social norms that can be leveraged by potential
beneficiaries in their favor. This paper examines the heterogeneous impact of
the duration of exposure to gender-neutral reforms in the inheritance law in
India on two latent domains of women empowerment: intrinsic, which pertains to
expansion of agency and instrumental which relates to ability to make
decisions. The time lag between the year of the amendment in the respective
states and the year of marriage generate exogenous variation in reform exposure
across women. The findings indicate a significant non-linear increase in the
instrumental as well as intrinsic empowerment. Importantly, improvements in
education along with increase in the age of marriage and changes in family
structure are found to be the potential channels that signal gradual relaxation
of social norms and explain the higher returns to exposure on empowerment.
