Publication: Economic, Demographic, and Institutional Determinants of Life Insurance Consumption across countries
Date
2003-01
ISSN
Published
2003-01
Author(s)
Abstract
Life insurance has become an
increasingly important part of the financial sector over the
past 40 years, providing a range of financial services for
consumers and becoming a major source of investment in the
capital market. But what drives the large variation in life
insurance consumption across countries remains unclear.
Using a panel with data aggregated at different frequencies
for 68 economies in 1961-2000, this article finds that
economic indicators such as inflation, income per capita,
and banking sector development and religious and
institutional indicators are the most robust predictors of
the use of life insurance. Education, life expectancy, the
young dependency ratio, and the size of the social security
system appear to have no robust association with life
insurance consumption. The results highlight the importance
of price stability and banking sector development in fully
realizing the savings and investment functions of life
insurance in an economy.
Citation
“Beck, Thorsten; Webb, Ian. 2003. Economic, Demographic, and Institutional Determinants of Life Insurance Consumption across countries. World Bank Economic Review. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17169 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO.”
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World Bank Economic Review
1564-698X
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