diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a1c246eb..f6092382 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -119,9 +119,10 @@ You can set certain environment variables to control the build process.
 * `MAKE` lets you override the command to use for `make`. Useful for specifying
   GNU make (`gmake`) on some systems.
 * `MAKE_OPTS` (or `MAKEOPTS`) lets you pass additional options to `make`.
-* `RUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS` and `RUBY_MAKE_OPTS` allow you to specify configure and
-  make options for buildling MRI. These variables will be passed to Ruby only,
-  not any dependent packages (e.g. libyaml).
+* `MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS` lets you pass additional options to `make install`.
+* `RUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS`, `RUBY_MAKE_OPTS` and `RUBY_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS` allow
+  you to specify configure and make options for buildling MRI. These variables
+  will be passed to Ruby only, not any dependent packages (e.g. libyaml).
 
 ### Applying patches to Ruby before compiling
 
diff --git a/bin/ruby-build b/bin/ruby-build
index 71e1650f..534f3ab1 100755
--- a/bin/ruby-build
+++ b/bin/ruby-build
@@ -398,6 +398,8 @@ build_package_standard() {
   local PACKAGE_CONFIGURE_OPTS_ARRAY="${package_var_name}_CONFIGURE_OPTS_ARRAY[@]"
   local PACKAGE_MAKE_OPTS="${package_var_name}_MAKE_OPTS"
   local PACKAGE_MAKE_OPTS_ARRAY="${package_var_name}_MAKE_OPTS_ARRAY[@]"
+  local PACKAGE_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS="${package_var_name}_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS"
+  local PACKAGE_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS_ARRAY="${package_var_name}_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS_ARRAY[@]"
   local PACKAGE_CFLAGS="${package_var_name}_CFLAGS"
 
   [ "$package_var_name" = "RUBY" ] && use_homebrew_readline || true
@@ -409,7 +411,7 @@ build_package_standard() {
   ) >&4 2>&1
 
   { "$MAKE" $MAKE_OPTS ${!PACKAGE_MAKE_OPTS} "${!PACKAGE_MAKE_OPTS_ARRAY}"
-    "$MAKE" install
+    "$MAKE" install $MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS ${!PACKAGE_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS} "${!PACKAGE_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS_ARRAY}"
   } >&4 2>&1
 }
 
diff --git a/test/build.bats b/test/build.bats
index ec43019b..f1660a66 100644
--- a/test/build.bats
+++ b/test/build.bats
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ OUT
 stub_make_install() {
   stub "$MAKE" \
     " : echo \"$MAKE \$@\" >> build.log" \
-    "install : cat build.log >> '$INSTALL_ROOT/build.log'"
+    "install : echo \"$MAKE \$@\" >> build.log && cat build.log >> '$INSTALL_ROOT/build.log'"
 }
 
 assert_build_log() {
@@ -71,8 +71,10 @@ assert_build_log() {
   assert_build_log <<OUT
 yaml-0.1.4: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
 make -j 2
+make install
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
 make -j 2
+make install
 OUT
 }
 
@@ -94,9 +96,11 @@ OUT
   assert_build_log <<OUT
 yaml-0.1.4: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
 make -j 2
+make install
 patch -p0 -i -
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
 make -j 2
+make install
 OUT
 }
 
@@ -118,6 +122,7 @@ OUT
   assert_build_log <<OUT
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT --with-libyaml-dir=$brew_libdir
 make -j 2
+make install
 OUT
 }
 
@@ -141,6 +146,7 @@ DEF
   assert_build_log <<OUT
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT --with-readline-dir=$readline_libdir
 make -j 2
+make install
 OUT
 }
 
@@ -162,6 +168,7 @@ DEF
   assert_build_log <<OUT
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT --with-readline-dir=/custom
 make -j 2
+make install
 OUT
 }
 
@@ -184,6 +191,7 @@ DEF
   assert_build_log <<OUT
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
 make -j 2
+make install
 OUT
 }
 
@@ -207,6 +215,47 @@ DEF
   assert_build_log <<OUT
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
 make -j 4
+make install
+OUT
+}
+
+@test "setting RUBY_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS to a multi-word string" {
+  cached_tarball "ruby-2.0.0"
+
+  stub_make_install
+
+  export RUBY_MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS="DOGE=\"such wow\""
+  run_inline_definition <<DEF
+install_package "ruby-2.0.0" "http://ruby-lang.org/ruby/2.0/ruby-2.0.0.tar.gz"
+DEF
+  assert_success
+
+  unstub make
+
+  assert_build_log <<OUT
+ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
+make -j 2
+make install DOGE="such wow"
+OUT
+}
+
+@test "setting MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS to a multi-word string" {
+  cached_tarball "ruby-2.0.0"
+
+  stub_make_install
+
+  export MAKE_INSTALL_OPTS="DOGE=\"such wow\""
+  run_inline_definition <<DEF
+install_package "ruby-2.0.0" "http://ruby-lang.org/ruby/2.0/ruby-2.0.0.tar.gz"
+DEF
+  assert_success
+
+  unstub make
+
+  assert_build_log <<OUT
+ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
+make -j 2
+make install DOGE="such wow"
 OUT
 }
 
@@ -257,6 +306,7 @@ DEF
 apply -p1 -i /my/patch.diff
 ruby-2.0.0: --prefix=$INSTALL_ROOT
 make -j 2
+make install
 OUT
 }