Indigenous Gendered Land Tenure Norms and Women's Agricultural Investment in Ghanaian Cocoa Households: A Regression-Discontinuity Estimation of Customary Inheritance Boundaries

Customary inheritance rules in Ghanaian cocoa households allocate land along gendered lines, yet the causal effect of these indigenous tenure boundaries on women's agricultural investment remains poorly identified. Using the DHS Program survey indicator 'Households cooking with agricultural crop' (id HC_CKFL_H_AGR) across 24 African countries and 74 country-survey observations from 2004 to 2025, the analysis characterises the distribution of agricultural-crop reliance as a proxy for land-based livelihood intensity. The sample mean was 0.236 (SD = 0.388), with country values ranging from 0.00 in Mozambique to 1.20 in Ethiopia. The regression-discontinuity estimand is conceptually sound but empirically underpowered with available cross-national data, and it specifies the household-level data requirements needed to identify customary inheritance boundaries. The contribution is a methodological framework that connects indigenous gendered tenure norms to measurable investment outcomes, together with a transparent assessment of what the DHS indicator can and cannot support.