ALLOCATION OF ACCUMULATED RESOURCES AMONG CLOSE KIN - INHERITANCE IN SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, 1890-1984

We analyze the legacies of 1538 testate decedents from Sacramento, California 1890-1984. Spouse and/or children received an average 92% of the estate. The few women who were survived by a spouse more often excluded their husbands in favor of their children than did husbands exclude wives. We explain this difference in spousal treatment in terms of the reproductive potential of the two sexes at the average age of death. Fathers and mothers without spouses bequeathed the majority of assets to children. Seventy-one percent of parents with two or more children treated them absolutely equally. Sex ratio among offspring was equal. There was no evidence of a general sex preference or a wealth by sex-preference interaction. Decedents with two or more daughters treated them more equitably than did decedents with two or more sons-additional evidence that treatment of daughters is less subject to environmental and individual variation than is the treatment of sons. Decedents without biological children treated adopted children like biological children. Smaller legacies to the few adopted children in families with biological children can be explained by increased sibship size.