Age-discrepant marriage a union in which spouses are separated by ten or more years — remains prevalent across sub-Saharan Africa, yet its economic architecture and inheritance implications are insufficiently theorised in demographic literature. This study, framed within compensatory exchange theory and the political economy of marriage, examined the structural conditions that drive age-discrepant unions in Uganda, the mechanisms by which bride price functions as a wealth-transfer instrument, and the inheritance outcomes accruing to women embedded in such arrangements. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected from 600 ever-married women aged 18–49 in three purposively selected districts (Mbale, Mbarara, and Gulu), while 32 in-depth narrative interviews and four focus group discussions were conducted with purposively sampled participants. Univariate and bivariate descriptive analyses characterised the sociodemographic profile of respondents, binary logistic regression identified the socioeconomic predictors of bride-price magnitude, and multilevel modelling (MLM) decomposed individual- and community-level variance in inheritance outcomes. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic narrative analysis. Results revealed that younger wives (mean age at marriage 17.3 years) experienced age gaps of 18.4 years on average, substantially larger than the 2.1-year gap among age-matched controls. Logistic regression confirmed that each additional year of age gap increased the odds of a larger bride price by 34% (OR=1.34, 95% CI:1.21–1.49), while wife's educational deprivation and rural residence further elevated these odds. Multilevel models demonstrated that age gap was a significant positive predictor of land inheritance probability (coeff.=0.18, p